Here's a shape(spline) tutorial that games modelers will find interesting.We'll use LR3D's splines to create a gun model.
First, I'm not an artist so if the model doesn't look too fancy I bet you can do better.

Download *.RAY file http://www.sxcreations.com/Download/Files/tut_gun.zip

NOTE:Registered users can download the patch for v1.3.2 which corrects the bkgnd image(sticks to grid,size is 1:1,zooms-moves-rotates with view).So if you already downloaded it skip the "plane" creation below and load a bkgnd image instead.
We won't use views' bkgnd images because v1.3.2 scales them to viewports sizes.Instead we'll create a plane mesh and assign
the saiga skin texture so that we can "draw" the lines upon it.This plane will be our guide.

Create Plane Mesh
----------------------
Load the texture into a material and create a plane.
BEFORE leaving 'create mode', set the plane's width,height values to the image size so that the ratio is 1:1.
Move the plane along Y axis so that the shape points we create(their y will be 0) will be visible.


Now go to 'Shapes' category and choose 'Line'.Press 'Create' and start clicking to create a 2D shape around the borders of
the image.The shape must Start-End at the same point.Don't worry if you forgot to add a point or the shape doesn't come
out that good, you can edit the shape once finished in the 'Modify Tab Dialog'.
It should look like that:



When the shape is ok to be transformed into a mesh go to 'Modify Tab Dialog' -shape must be
selected- and scroll dialog down to find the 'Convert To Mesh' section.Enter a 'Extrude'
value -I used 20- and also must set
the 'Sections' value >1 so that the model won't be just a box-like mesh.Press the Extrude button.Keep the shape when asked
to delete it so that we can recreate a mesh if something goes wrong.Hide it if you like.A mesh will be created.To give it a
smooth look we must select the mid-vertices(go to EditMesh dialog, Verts sub-object mode) and drag them or scale
them.A mesh smooth plugin that increases the num of faces and smooths corners is ready for downloading but deals with whole mesh not faces selection!For v1.3.3 this will be fixed.



Next set the material to mesh and apply a planar UVmapping for the mesh or different parts(selected faces).Now go and edit
UVs(EditUV button) to fit the texture.This must be done for each faces selection(Sides,Top-Bottom etc.).
The result will look something like this:



I've created this in 5 minutes.Once used working with LR3D you'll be faster.

Prometheus