Custom Armor Problem

[Durai]

Okay first off I've used the search function and have read numerous threads on the subject, however none of the answers provided work for me. Let me explain:

 

I was traditionally trained to model using Maya. I've never been able to grasp modeling in Blender or 3DS Max (controls confuse me). So in order to attain my goal of making custom armor for Skyrim, I decided I would have to take extra steps to get my gear into the game. Namely, I model my armor in Maya, export the OBJ files into 3DS Max and skin them, then export and create the necessary nif files.

 

Now I get my custom gear into the game, however there are a few problems.

 

1. Simply using Skin Wrap in 3DS Max to weight the _0 and _1 nifs causes vertex explosions in-game when sliding the weight slider between the two extremes of skinny and muscular. Both nif files have the same number of verticies so I don't know what's causing the issue here.

 

2. Using "So Much Morpher" fixes the previous problem but creates a new one: When the camera is far enough away from the player character, parts of the arm becom invisible when rotating around the character. This sort of thing I noticed happens when importing models with reversed normals. The thing is, when the camera is close enough to the character the problem isn't as visible (it's still there, just not quite as noticable).

 

I'm wondering if both problems are related to me using Maya to model as opposed to Max. Has anyone come across something similar to this? If so, are there special settings I need to use when exporting my OBJ from Maya to Max? Or is there something I'm overlooking in the nif files? Any help is greatly appreciated!