I'm more of a programmer than a modeller but here's what I do:

Make a primitive-based sphere/ prism (pyramids work for directional stuff) in WED, export the object to '.MDL', open in MED and give it 1-2 skins under the skin definitions there, and save it again. Then I reference that as my final model to work with while I'm prototyping.

Don
ahve a great day