If you look carefuly at the "hunter", you will hopefully agree that it looks quite detailed (if not, I don´t like you). But please (!) don´t look too close! Because then you will realize that everything consists of quite basic shapes and that it´s not a miracle at all to create a robot that looks detailed and a bit complicated - all you need is patience, patience and a little bit of patience. And at least some hundred MB of Ram ;-) And a very tolerant girlfriend.......... or a boyfriend. If you´re a girl. well..... uhm next question:

Fig. 1

Question one (from the emails): What modeling-techniques did you use for this model?

I used Box-modeling for the basic shapes. The head, the chest, the arms, the legs, the feet.
I always start with boxes. NEVER ever start with a sphere unless you want a sphere! NEVER try to model a head from a sphere. I know it sounds a lot better than a box, but believe me, it´s the wrong way(OH YES! There might not be "the right way", but there are certainly a lot of WRONG ones ;-) ).You get those pole-caps and they´re made of triangular-faces which will eventually destroy your model.
Rather take a box, divide it into something like 4x4x2 polys, then use the "spherify"-modifier in MAX or something similar in your 3D-Software.
You will still end up with a sphere but with square-polys, no tri-faces. OK? ;-)
If you want to know how to box-model the basic shape of a head, check out this site: http://www.second-reality.ch
It´s Arild Wiro´s site and there´s more than just one excellent tutorial on it. Sad enough he´s not updating it any more... :-(
Wiro, if you ever come across this tut, come on, update your website :-)

Fig. 2 & 3

As I said earlier: There´s no "right" way to model, there´s only YOUR way.
Let me explain to you MY way. Then please decide if it makes sense to you or not.
This is the way I model:
I start with a box, divide it into something like 4x4x4 depending on the shape I want to have, then model the basic shape. As soon as I´m satisfied I make a copy (clone) of it, so I can go back to my basic shape whenever I want. I add a "mesh-smooth" modifier to the basic-model with an iteration of 1. Then I model all the details and afterwards add another mesh-smooth with iterations 1 or 2 at render-time.
That gives me very clear meshes, very regular polys, clear edge-loops and an excellent edge-flow. I do get unnecessary polys though sometimes.

It´s time for some pictures, isn´t it? I´m getting tired of writing, so I´ll just start Max and make some screen-shots (Fig. 1-4).
These are low-poly (unsmoothed) shots of the basic parts of my robot.

Fig. 4

Ok, so you´ve seen my robot naked ;-)

Question two: How did you make those inlays and "detached" parts of his armor?

SEE PIC 5 for explanation

They are not detached. They´re modeled into the armor. I´ll explain how I did those parts on a simple model:

Step 1: Create your basic shape (here a simple box)
Step 2. select some polys (here: red) :PIC6
Step 3: Extrude them inwards by 1, then extrude them outwards again by 1.
Step 4: Smooth your model ;o) Voil·! PIC7

And that´s it! Be creative! Chamfer, bevel, extrude! Add different materials to your selection.
Of course, some of those parts of my model are a bit more complicated, but they were all modelled in the same way. Extrude inwards, extrude outwards. Some of them were not extruded, some have been beveled. I also chamfer a lot of edges to add definition to my shapes.

Question three: How did you create all those cables?
Well that´s easy to answer. The cables are all renderable splines. In Max you can create a spline and then tick those 3 beautiful boxes as seen in PIC8 (below):

Chose renderable, display render-mesh and generate mapping-coordinates. Now add any texture you want and you got a beautiful cable! Easy, isn´t it? The best thing is: They can easily be animated afterwards as well ;-)