Welcome to mech2.org!
We are making models here, but it's not a very important task right now, as I am not certain where exactly these projects will lead. One avenue would be adding the mechs to the existing simulation, the other is to rewrite that simulation. Both avenues require a slightly different approach. Anyway, I want to recreate the shell first. But if you're eager about modeling, I have two projects that you could do. If you take these projects, I will comment the images you post. The most important rule when modeling mechs is to keep the details and camo textures separate, so that we can create new textures by combining the details texture with different camo textures. You might wish to share your work with the guys at mech3.org, who would integrate it into MW3 or make paper craft from it.
The first project is the Mist Lynx/Koshi, a Clan Omnimech, weighing 25 tons.This is the
Sarna article, and some painting schemes can be found
here.
The other project is the Ostscout, which I wanted to make, but haven't had the time to start on it yet. The mech has been discussed
here.
And good luck with your studies!