Wow, your models look great. I just recently discovered the wonderful world of Dev Journals (first day of GDNet+), and I've seen some great things out here.

Any modelling tips for a programmer who is still a beginner when it comes to modeling? I haven't found much out on the net regarding modelling dogma, although I've only been looking for Milkshape3d tutorials as that is my weapon of choice.

Firstly, welcome to Journal land!++ I'm no expert, but I'll give you some ideas I've come across while learning.

Do you understand the concept of edge loops? They're basically continuous edges that help the model flow naturally. Each of the contiguous lines in a grid are edge loops. Sensible edge loops are often the mark of good model topogology, but for really low poly modelling, they won't be as evident. So lots of people model with quads as much as possible and use triangles only as necessary. It helps to make the flow of the form more evident. Google will probably give a better explanation.

I'm also finding that its good to model areas of high curvature with triangles rather than quads, while still maintaining some idea of the underlying edge loops. You can split a quad into triangles in two ways ([/] or [\]). Sometimes its okay to leave it up to the modelling program to decide which way to split the quad, but for tight curves, you'll often want to split it beforehand.

Before you model anything, you might want to sketch out the concept so that you have some sort of direction. This is something that I don't do enough of. Also, you'll often want to gather some reference material to work from. If you're modelling a human, gather some front, back, and side view shots to give some idea of proportion.

Oh and I often visit the Game Art Design WIP forum on CGTalk. You can often see models go from concept to completion with wireframes. There's also some more tips here.

I personally use Wings3D for modelling and Blender for animation, but you should use whatever you feel most comfortable with. I've never used milkshape so I can't comment on it.

Thanks for the tips and links! I'll look into the edge loop concept a bit more.