Update
 

Well its not very much, but it was very time cosuming, as you all know I have just started on this package, but heres a close up on some of the detail I am doing ever so sorry about the watermarks. Please try to look past that :)

But people can just render it so the water mark is off the image and then cut it out in Photoshop. I think people should stop knocking PLE nobody is making you all use it.

@ Ra1Der - ignore what anyone says about PLE and use it until you think you need a full version.

ckyuk, You said to have people ignore it but even you could not. You made the comment but did not even give any advice to Ra1Der who was asking for it. For a first model it looks good. I see some artifacts from using bollean on the hinge. You are probably haveing problems getting it to work now becuase you have already used it. I use to have to group all bollean cutting tools before I did a single operation to make sure they all worked. Some quick advice is to ry to do things like that with out booleans. A perfect square will smooth into a perfect circle. If there is a camfer on a corner it will stop the complete rounding of that edge. Even if you do not smooth something you should always have a chamfer on every corner to catch light. It will give a better appearence.

Its looking good..

well like most things its just trial and error:) I am learning by my mistakes, I think perhaps I should have used nurb surfaces to create the hinge

I didn't give advice on the model because i didn't have any advice to give. I'm not exactly an expert so giving advice isn't something i can do a lot of without seeing more.

Looks pretty cool.

I did a M1A1 this summer, so I know all about trial and error :). I used a pretty detailed ref pic and a tamiya model as reference. What kind of reference are you using?

As for the model, are you going for high-poly or more medium/low-poly? If you are going for high-poly, I'd do as RickStefani said and bevel/chamfer those edges. Byrons Bevel on highend3d is a very nice replacement for mayas bevel. I also agree on staying away from booleans as much as possible, as they can result in some very 'unclean' geometry. I did the main shape of the vehicle first and added details later, but that is mostly a matter of preference.

Keep it up and continue using PLE for as long as you need to. The watermark is ugly and large, but does not totally obscure the model.

Ra1Der: try deleteing the history on both pieces before using the booleans. Seems to work better that way.

As for the PLE debate: There's nothing wrong with using PLE. It's still Maya, just a lighter version of it strictly for the purpose of learning the software. The watermark, although very obnoxious and annoying, is their way of saying, "Here's a free version of Maya, but if you want to make money from using it, then go buy the full version". Ain't nothing wrong with that. I know I would be pissed if I bought Maya for $XXXX.XX and suddenly they decide to give it away for free! OOOOH! DAT MAKE TAZ MAD! :D:D:D

ok no more talk of the watermark. Can you post some more shots of the main body from a few angles just so that we can get a feel for how the body is shaping up. I'm doing a tank myself at the moment and I've found that that is one of the most crucial things by far. I'll show mine tomorrow if I can get the jpgs to work and upload them to show you what I mean.

Alan