Hey man, try Flatshading the model, it's probably going to look allot nicer.
Also try getting some textures for it maybe, nothing ultra complex, just some textures that give it different colors. You can map them out using the texture window thing in MS3D
Also, if you want to make the texture partially repaintable (like, the yellow belly remains yellow no matter which color you give it, but the back is repaintable) you could make a compound texture with one part yellow, one part Slightly Transparent black or brown if you want to mix in some brown color. You could stretch that texture accross the shape and get a real nice model in the end.