[Need help] Replacing armor textures/models

[Exodeth666]

Hello there, I was wondering if there is a way for me to change models and so in skyrim, I mean a way that it will 100% work.

I'm new to all this stuff, but I really love the steel plate armor look,

and dislike dragonplate [or w/e the dragon light armor is] so I've wanted to replace the dragonplate armor model/texture/look with the steel plate.

Could someone please explain to me how to do it? And do it so a newbie like me could understand.
Thanks a lot for any help provided :)

 

[IsharaMeradin]

Couple methods

 

#1

-- Determine what the texture file (DDS) and mesh file (NIF) are for both the dragon plate & steel plate armors.

-- Determine what the file location of the dragon plate files (found inside the BSA files)

-- Duplicate the dragon plate file location in the Data folder (for examle: Data\Meshes\Armor\SomeArmor)

-- Extract the steel plate mesh and texture files from the BSA files (BSAopt or similar)

-- Place a copy of the steel plate mesh and texture files in the new dragon plate file location within the data folder

-- rename the steel plate mesh and texture files to match the dragon plate.

 

#2

-- Crack open the creation kit

-- locate the armor form for the dragon plate

-- in the model section (middle bottom) replace the dragon plate armor addon forms with the steel plate armor addon forms

 

#3

-- Identical to #2 but use TES5Edit instead

 

#1 is 100% unless another mod overwrites your loose files

#1 is 100% unless another mod redirects the forms to different file locations

#2 is 100% unless another mod places loose files that change the appearance of the files you are using

#2 is 100% unless another mod changes the same forms and is loaded after your plugin

#3 is same as #2