Hereās some ideas for you to consider.
The good thing about your question, you know exactly what you want to learn. Modeling, even more specific, you are not interested in sculpting or organic modeling, itās hard surface modeling for the most part. This is great, it will keep you focused.
The odd thing is asking Max or Blender, as if those are the only players when it comes to modeling. Although both appz are capable, I would not recommend either to someone starting out!
I think in your case one of the most important things to choosing the app you want to start with is the āleraning curveā of the app. That is a term that describes how hard/easy it is to get comfortable in using the app (no matter what your technical/artistic knowledge is).
Why learing curve? Because you know that itās hard surface modeling that interests you, and you want to dive right in, spend the least time wrestling the application - rather learn the ins and outs of modeling. Granted, most likely, once you get to a point where you are very comfortable with hard surface modeling, you will start to venture deeper into 3D and explore texturing, rendering, sculpting, etc. That would be the time to re-evaluate all the other appz out there (and Blender!).
My thoughts on Max and Blender for modeling. Iāve worked in a Max pipeline for years, never modeled in it. Used Silo for years, itās taken me a looong time to finally make the transition to Blender. Iām very comfortable modeling in Blender today, itās got some great features. But itās taken a long time to get here, not learning the ātoolsā (or to model, I knew how to model already). I used a heavily customized version of Silo, and I use a heavily customized Blender. Blender, having a real steap learning curve, takes in-depth knowledge to customize properly and make it functional.
Iād be inclined to say try all the appz out there, and see what resonates with you.
I would recommend Silo (has a full functional time-limited demo) and Wings3D (free). Those appz are capable hard surface modelers and both have very good learning curves in my opinion. Neither has some ground-breaking tricks up the sleeve. Theyāre just plain solid poly modelers, and would get you familiar with poly-modeling fastest in my opinion. After you get comfortable with poly-modling, then you can look for appz that have specific poly-modling features/workflows.
To break down your situation even further, you donāt need conventional tutorials or such. What you want to look for is topology theory, and just study other peoples wireframes/topology. Understand how a wireframe describes a surface.
Hope this helps. Have fun, and keep at it!
This is a PDF that has in it a good thread on topology. Even though a lot of examples in it are characters, itās basically just topology theory.
http://www.google.ca/url?url=http://pp.kpnet.fi/3DMe/maxstuff/SUBD_fixed.pdf&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&sa=U&ei=ZxhJVPyNL4aoyATZ9YGYBA&ved=0CC0QFjAE&usg=AFQjCNGKVqJCLMk8Nep1IBbO-7yoeHxtJA