changing initial rotation for models when loading

im loading a 3ds file (converted from milkshape by milkshape''s exporter), and when i load it, the model is laying on its side. so i went and hacked up the code just to make it display 90 degrees up right, but rotation is all screwed up from that point, in order to get it to visually rotate on the "y axis" (which is now actually the z axis, after we flipped it) we have to do a glTranslatef for the z axis... very un cool how are you supposed to set/change this so that all calls to rotation work just fine, after loading the model? thanks, joey