hi everyone. As some may know, I have made quite a few gun models recently, and i started working on a 'mod', a first person shooter which i am making models for, guns first but maybe some scenery props to come? The guns have gone well i think, but i need to make some arms and hands to attach to them. im not confident at all with organic modelling, so what i thought to do was download an existing model, and chop off the arms and retexture them.

My problem is when i download files from the net, i cant get them to open. Im using Maya 2008. I downloaded an MB file the other day, and when i tried opening it, the workspace just became a white blank. I tried an mdl file (wasnt sure if you could open mdl files anyway), and same again. no joy.

Can someone tell me if they think this is a problem with the downloaded file itself, or that it might have been made in a different version of maya? Or suggest a good trustable site with available models? And if i download a file, should i open it by 'opening the file with maya' or open up maya and import the file?

I would really like to get some hands on the guns cause the coder is itching to put them in game to get a test version out, and ive started holding up the process.