Turk, firstly welcome to the wonderful world of 3DS. It is a great program and easy to learn compared to something like Maya. 3DS is very friendly to the newbie. It is also good to know that you have experience with another program, this will help you alot and aid you in understanding the conceptions of 3DS.

Right, now to the point. Modelling something like the Utility Light is very simple. My advice would be, looking at the link, to firstly use the diagram on that link. It is not high res but the model is so simple that you can probly get away with it. Download the daigram and use these as reference in 3DS. You will need to read up or do the tutorials to find out how to make a reference plane. A reference plane is bascially a plane that has a texture on it and that texture is the daigram.

With these reference planes in place, line them up so all the elements of the light match ie the handle in the front view lines up with the handle in the side view etc.

Once they are lined up, the next stage is to model using the reference plane as a guide or template. I would advice using polygon modelling (do the tutorail on this). Looking at the diagrams, I would start with a cylinder then use a bevel. That should get you about 90% there. It is just a matter of fine tuning the shape using various modelling tools. The other elements e.g. nuts and bolts can be started from primative box and cylinders.

The fine details of the lights can be done with textures but that is a different story and a new set of skills (which is covered in the tutorial as well).

Send us a few jpegs of ya progress and we will be happy to advice you further. The main thing is do the tutorials or even watch video tutorials. Don’t try to jump straight into modelling if you have no experience with 3DS modelling.