What programs do you (either RS or anyone else who has ever made a gun for unreal) use to design the weapons for the game and then how do you make it usable in-game?
I have a bunch of pretty good weapon ideas and am fairly skilled with design programs (eg. AutoCAD) and I would like to be able to incorporate some of my designs into UT2k4.

UHm design in wrong word, it's modeling.

Most probably max since epic state that they want skill in max for their modeling job positions. Interresting that they accept both zbrush and mudbox. :3

Well you have to design the gun before you model it. Just start with a paper and pencil and get all your ideas down for that weapon and then use the amazing AutoCAD and make a rough idea.

My mistake, when I said "design" I meant model, terribly sorry for the confusion, but anyways, I already have a good design in both 2d and isometric in AutoCAD. And in addition to my original question, once I do successfully create a virtual model of my weapon, how do I put it into the game? Oh and any further suggestions for "modelling" programs would be greatly appreciated.

Check out Blender3D. Its a high-end open-source modeling program. And free is always good.

Bit of a steep learning curve though.

Wings3D is good for learning the basics. It has a very simple interface and is easy to pick up.

Thanks for all your help guys, it's been of great value!

You need an exporter for your program to export the mesh and stuff into the file format that UT2004 uses and then be able to do the scriping requiret to add it to the game.

Max 2009 is out btw, not much inerresting features added. Some mental ray and biped stuff. :<