3ds Max :: Wrapping Object Around Another Object

My first 3Ds max project. I've run into a little bit of a dilemma in my modeling process and I can't seem to find a way of figuring it out on my own.

The first image I have linked below is one of my early concept sketches for what I am trying to model. No extensive detail, just a basic 3D shape to get an idea of what I'm trying to make. It's essentially 2 horse shoe shaped arms intersecting in the middle of each other. One vertical the other horizontal. The object in the middle can be ignore for now as it does not apply to my question.

The second image I have linked below is what I have so far. My thought process was to make the outer shell as one flat object and then bend the arms to match the drawing I have. That's where the problem comes in. I have tried multiple techniques and tools. The one that has come the closest to the result I want is the use of the compound object conform.

The way I used conform compound object was to create an egg shaped sphere and try to wrap the arms of my object around the sphere. What ended up happening was the arms didn't make it even half way around the sphere as well the vertices on out facing surface on the arms got distorted.

The Final picture is a previous attempt using a different method that I have since abandoned because it too was not giving me the results I wanted.