Crow is your best bet on this one.
I downloaded an addon to 3dMax that was a pretty cool unwrapper program (I'll have a look when I get back to work on Thursday for the name).
You then select your model and unwrap it.
This produces a flat image with colours on it.
Depending on the complexity of the model it is better to break it down into sections like fore, aft, wings, pylons, etc.
With the program I had it sometimes overlaps the model in the flat file so you have to move things around a bit.
Then you export the image in the unwrap program.
Then open that in photoshop and draw on top of the colours.
Then back into 3dmax to assign the texture (saved image from photoshop) from the material editor.
There are some great tutorials out there, search google for "3dmax unwrap"
Hope that helps.
