Infrastruct

Well I've had Oblivion for about.......4 days on the pc na dI'm already hooked on mods, I was thinking of starting a simple project, i.e. putting a flame effect on a weapon, but the problem is I have no experience at all with modding. I understand that I would need Blender and Nifskope, as well as the CS. Is there anything else I need? And another thing, I can't find any tutorials on modding for beginners.....it's such a pain lol. Anyways all I wanted to say was would anyone know where I could get hold of the textures/ meshes for designing my own sword and applying the flame effect. Thanks. :)