I've been using blender for about three years now...cant say i'm an expert at all aspects but i do believe i have come a long way from when i first started...
Anyway, the key with blender is patience... you may seem to be learning it really slow for about two weeks, and be tempted to give up, but believe me, once you break on through to the other side, you will find it the most responsive and instinctive 3d software. i tried switching to 3ds max once and found blender better, its so addictive.
as far as learning it is concerned...
*www.cdschools.org/54223045235521/lib/54223045235521/BlenderBasics_3rdEdition2009b.pdf
^ That is a beautiful 146 page pdf that will ease you into it... structured for the complete newb.
All the best and remember to be patient...it is worth it.
Edit-
BTW we paint and create complete in blender or is it like rastering Gimp and then modelling in blender?
Blender has both features. ie first you make the model. this is called a 'clay' model ie it has no materials/textures applied and will appear as a dull gray model when rendered.Eg this is an example of a 'clay' tank i have modelled.
*img156.imageshack.us/img156/5491/1clay.jpg
Subsequently, by applying "materials" ie controlling the colour, shininess(specularity) etc of the object you have modelled.This is an example of random colour materials applied to the tank model. Of course tanks dont really look like this, but if i was modelling a simple object like a plastic bottle, i would probably just put a materrial like this and leave it.
*img228.imageshack.us/img228/7593/2mat.jpg
Most complicated real world objects are not like this. So,next step is to apply "textures" these mean the realistic graininess or scratches etc. Blender offers some readymade textures for basic and simple texturing called "procedural" textures, but you can actually load any image as a texture onto a model... ie you can take a digital photo of a brick wall and apply it to the walls of a house you may be modelling. So you may create a new texture in GIMP or ps and 'wrap' it around your model as a texture using a procedure called 'UV-mapping'. You can also paint directly onto your model in 3d with the latest edition of blender ie 2.49. Usually you will want to use a mix of all the above for various parts of your model...
In the final model of the tank, I created the textures in ps and UVmapped them onto the surfaces of the model. Since I created a detailed texture including colours, i did not use the models material colours at all. Here is the final model.
*img216.imageshack.us/img216/8404/1tex.jpg
