I used these 2D drawings that i sketch to help me model my fish. I created three planes in the middle of my modeling area, one on each plane. I used the images as a material to render each of the different views on the different plans.

It should look something like this as you start to render the plains.

Next i started with a box which I placed in the middle of the plains ruffly where I will need it. I then press f4, which enables you to see the lines which divide the box up, I increased these by selecting the box and heading to the modifier section and increasing the segments.

Starting from the front of the fish, I modeled along its length creating that profile first. I then moved to the left a modeled down its side and I started to see the fish take shape and actually look like a carp.

I made the fins by creating new rectangles and through editable poly I minipulated them by moving the vertex points into the right shape. As the fins are thin at then end, and the majority of the theire lenght it tooka while to get its acurate, as the vertex points are so close together and in all 3 directions.

I modeled the fish and all its fins, tail and eyes. Then I made a texture in Photoshop, I got some images of koi and chose a pattern I liked then replicated that using brushes. I then imported that into 3D max, using the bitmap tool, this didnt come out to well as the flat texture is bent and stretched over the round shape.

To overcome the stretching of the texture, I edited the UVW maps which is the surface area of the object flatened out into indiviual peices. I have to knit the pieces together to create a smooth texture when it is layed over the maps. This takes some time, but the diference is realy worth it.

Here is the render using UVW maps to control the texture how i want it to look, its now ready to place into my enviroments that I will create next.