I got 3dsmax8 and want to start modelling. How would I decompile source models so that I can view them in 3dsmax and hopefully learn something from them?

there's a decompiler in "studiocompiler" from this site (http://www.chaosincarnate.net/cannonfodder/cftools.php?program=studiocompiler)

you need:

- studiocompiler (to compile and decompile models)

- 3dmax importer and exporter

- tutorials from that site ;)

then you can decompile a model, import it into max, change stuff or add stuff, export it, write a .qc and compile again.

good documentation about this is on

this site (http://developer.valvesoftware.com/wiki/Category:Modeling)

Or simply look in your SDK content folder. Theres the source files for lots of types of models there.