POVray is the best.
Moray is a good modeller if you don't want to mess w/ script, or you have a large project, but you have to pay for it if you render many scenes (nag screen).
sPatch and
hamaPatch are excelent for Spline Modelling (hamaPatch is Bilingual).
Above programs (except Moray) are free.
3D studio Max has a good modeller, but it does so-so rendering. Any raytraced stuff is going to take too long.