I put each piece on a separate layer so that I would be able to easily navigate through my scene. Most of the parts to my time machine started off as cylinders, with the exception of the pillar - I used a duplicate special to get the correct number so that I would only need to make 1 pillar instead of 12.

      Each object also had a separate material in maya so that I could keep track of what type of maps I would need for each part.