SoT Dev company

hey Talros what kind of program you use to make the homeworld models? i would like to create some ships or redo some like the taiidans. ive been looking around but im not sure how to do it.like instead of re-texture homeworld 1 ships i would like to know what program i can use to open up the homeworld 1 model, and edit it, like improve the details and weapons. for example i would like to open up the taiidan heavy cruiser model and upgrade the details and graphics, guns, ion cannons etc and then texture it so that it fits in with homeworld 2 graphics. if you can help it would be great, i wanna learn this texture and modeling craft so i can be of help to anyone modding and also create my own ships.