Quick question

I've been thinking a bit about how to model a robot in my game. While I'm going to be making the game in 2D, it just seems to make sense to model a blocky robot with a 3D modelling program and take snapshots to use as 2D sprites.

The problem is that I haven't actually used a 3D modelling program in depth, and I'm not sure what's available. I did once try Blender, but the learning curve on that is horrendous. While I'm up to try Blender again, does anyone have any suggestions for a simple, preferrably free (or cheap) 3D modelling program that I could use to model 2D sprites?