Heya,
I mainly use 3dsmax 7. I hear good things about blender though, besides a very cluttered and un-intuitive interface. Plenty of power though, for a free software package.
By the way, if you're more into modeling 3D than doing anything else with it, or if you're just looking for a really great polygonal modeling package, try
Silo. Great piece of software.
If you want a free proggy for poly modelling, Wings 3D is the best that you'll get. It's designed to be very similar to Nendo - if you know what that is, it's a very good description.