Greetings...And welcome to the HIVE.
I am Elenai the Epic.
May The Epic Light lift you in wings.....
For model editing/making programs here are some examples.
Oinkerwinkle tools; Free, easy to use, and highly useful for mdl editing and modeling. General Frank and I use this.
Gmax; Free, but not very good for serious modeling, and it has problems with animating.
Milkshape; Cheap, but a very nice program for all your modeling needs, and combined with Oinkerwinkle tools, is highly effective. SuPa and RDZ use this.
3dsmax; The lord of modeling tools. Blizzard used 3dsmax to create the original models. Highly effective, and excellent for all modeling needs. But it is around $3000 and is very hard to fine...unless.....Anyways, Chriz and other High Lords of Modeling use this, I also dabble with it.