blender rendering team fortress 2

[76561198103714358]

i'm new to blender.i want to make some team fortress 2 items.don't want animations just want to take meshes and add textures to them so they could be brought to the workshop.but blender render cycles won't work.can someone please tell me that is it necessary to render my items so that they could be uploaded to the workshop.Can i add textures to my meshes without anything to do with rendering.if not then please tell me a free alternative for blender software.thanks