Sorry folks, I've been too busy to make progress that I could show. I did study how to uv-map meshes 'the optimum way' and did map the base gargoyle in Lightwave. It seemed a lot like import to Gmax would work via 3DS-format but nope, no such luck. I guess they intended it this way, having Gmax a pain/impossible to use with any other software. Anyways now I'm mapping in Gmax. Tedious.

Oh yeah, optimized base gargoyle from 1204 to 1150 triangles.