Objects in 3Ds Max

I have made a crannog that will provide the setting for the museum in 3Ds max, and I'm in the process of making a macehead, one of the items in the museum. At the moment I have no plans to put more objects into the museum as the project is just a prototype. The object creation for the crannog was very simple; I made a circle spline and extruded it, then applied a shell modifier to create thickness. I converted it to an editable poly, and cut the door out of it using the Boolean compound object. The roof is a sphere cut in half and then reshaped using soft selection and scale. The textures are problematic; I have a straw texture on the roof which looks okay but not perfect, and any mud texture that I have tried to make does not render properly, so I will have to find a solution to that. The macehead is proving more problematic still; I've been working on it for a while and I've been using the Boolean compound object to create the shape I need, but this causes problems with the topology and the textures. The different smoothing modifiers aren't of much use in this regard. I have also tried to create a line and then add a lathe modifier to achieve the shape I'm looking for, but that hasn't been successful. Back to the drawing board for the moment...

Modelling the objects

Each of the objects in the museum must be modelled as accurately as possible. This involves measuring the objects based on the measurements given by the documentation. For example, this macehead from Lough Gur is on display in the British Museum, and the museum's website provides measurements for length and diameter. However, as the object is not a uniform shape, I have to calculate the measurements for the varying parts of the object. I am using an image in Photoshop, scaled in proportion, and I am using the rulers in Photoshop to calculate the various measurements.

The lines of measurement can be seen here. I am hoping that this level of precision will lead to an accurately modelled object.

I began modelling the object in 3ds max. My initial idea was to model it using Boolean operations to create a compound object made from cones and spheres. I did this on Friday but it didn't provide the desired effect. My current theory is to using the loft function in compound objects, as this allows me to more precisely model an object with non-uniform properties.