Hi!

I would model only one part of this object and then duplicate it.
It's perfect, because its basically an octagon, so delete the other 7 parts and model all the detail, then go to EDIT>Duplicate Options and type in:
rotate: y=45.0
Number of Copies: 7
Duplicate

Now its an octagon again, you only have to combine the 8 parts (Polygon>Combine) and merge the Vertices (Edit Polygons>Merge Vertices)

I answered the "How to make holes" part once in another post:
https://forum.simplymaya.com/showthre...362#post149362

hope it helps you too

mfg

@Pure_Morning
I will answer your post via PM