hm question about contests and such
sometimes I hate myself for mapping for a game...
I think I should be working on animation...
I was thinking about whoring out modelling/texturing in 3dsmax for people's maps, but of course would want credit on the map...
how would this affect contests and the like? 
Having you own models might look good, if they were good of course. However all the models currently included are good and also in the correct genre/sytle.
Making your own models would be very time consuming, so in my opinion not really worth it. It would make your map stand out from the rest though.
I'll just carry on using the pre made ones.
EDIT: i don't think it would affect contests unless the contest was themed e.g. Aperature Science.
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake!?
I have some map concepts that would require custom models, like capsule rooms hanging from ceiling and such, would want those round and bubbly like the rest of the portal models, not straight and blocky like hammer requires you to do.
remember they dont have to be small models, you can do whole rooms, you might have to cut it into a couple models but it can be done.
of course what you can do with brushes you should do with brushes.
I'm just here helping you think with portals
!
Me hands Player1 the award for shorted post 
o/
I was mainly thinking of a way I could contribute to the community from 3dsmax rather than hammer, as I have 7 years in 3dsmax (been working with it since version 4) and only a couple months in hammer.
for instance, whenever people try new things in portal, like shmitz's tetherball, a prop_dynamic with a custom model could look really sharp
the portal models are for things that were in portal, but people have other ideas, I used combine shields, shmitz used his tetherball. I could develop a custom model rather than using combine shields... for instance, although I like the shields so I dont think I will. The tetherball could be customized with a new sleek piston coming out of a housing above. Also the ball could be modified so people don't think it should be carried around like it was in adv 17... It's released now, im just saying I can help in ways other than mapping...
I will have to learn the reqs for HL2 models, like what format, how are the animation states stored (I can do animation states in 3dsmax but I don't know if thats compatible with hammer)
anyways heres a really old picture of a model I was working on, the skull has been remodelled since then, just dug something up to show my modelling
[img]http://i33.photobucket.com/albums/d93/Velocameter/Modelling.jpg[/img]
I have some mod ideas that could really use custom models. But we can't make mods until they update SDK Base, and anyway I'm still very much in the concept phase until I learn to use Hammer competently. But if the offer is still open in a couple of months, I'll take you up on it!
How do you get it from 3ds or max format to the Valve format? And then what's the proper way to package an additional model with a map?
source uses .mdl formats which 3dsmax can export to, and you would put it in the models folder...