Hi Gibbon, I just wanted to mention that there are some tips here for people coming from a poly modeling background that may be useful:
http://moi3d.com/forum/index.php?webtag=MOI&msg=4865.2

The big difference with NURBS modeling is that booleans and cutting operations are the primary way to do things, not something you have to avoid like in sub-d modeling. Usually many of the final 3D edges in your model should be produced as the result of a boolean from a 2D profile curve, rather than positioning all final edges in 3D space as you would with sub-d modeling. So along these lines often it's best to build a simplified extended piece of "stock" material that then gets cut up, I think there are some examples of that in the above tips.

- Michael