How to make an apparel item for a visible weapons mod

[DynasuarezWrecks]

Hey guys, I need to ask you for a little bit of help. I have a standalone weapon mod, specifically the 10mm SMG by Major_McCrackin. Rather than waiting for him to make a patch for a visible weapons mod, if he even decides to make one at all, I thought that I would take a shot at making one myself for my own personal use, especially since I want to learn how to use programs like Blender and Nifskope anyway.

 

So, what I really need help with is how to make the model in the first place. I know that given the modular nature of Fallout 4 weapons, I will need to combine a magazine .NIF and the receiver .NIF into a single model at the bare minimum. For now, I'll keep it simple. Once I've gotten the hang of things, then I'll try to add more attachments, like a stock or scope. I have basically no practical experience with modeling programs like Blender, so I don't actually know how to do that. The tutorials in the sticky on this forum, and all the tutorials that I have found on YouTube have been of limited help since they all seem to start at a step that would logically come later or assume that you already have the model you want or know how to create the model from scratch. None of them account for the fact that I am trying to combine two models into one, and that is completely understandable.

 

That model is all I need. Once I have it, I think I know my way around BodySlide well enough to make it into a usable apparel item, and I can definitely use the GECK to get it into the game and working correctly. I'd appreciate any instructions that help me achieve this goal.