I am currently attempting to make a mod which reskins the Galatian faction`s units, because they all seem to be such a dull copy of the Arverni.

One thing I would really like to change is the color of carious clothes and shields, independently from faction color.

I am using the Variant editor from the Essembly Kit and have so far only used vannila meshes in trying to create what I see on pictures like these:





I used these two pictures as templates for reskining the Galatian Royal Guard and the Galatian Naked Sword. One destinctive feature that constantly appears is the light blue color of their capes, trousers and other clothes. If applying those colors in the Variant editor they simply create a mess by coloring several pieces of clothing at once and one is left with a completly blue unit. I have also seen pics showing different patterns on clothes which I would also like to create without having the faction color interfering. And there are the shieldpatterns which look completly different from all other Celtic factions which I would also like to recreate.




I have tried opening various files with GIMP but always get an error message, but other than that I dont even know how to save a newly created pattern or color on clothes, without having the faction color later interfer with it.


Do I have to use a other program than GIMP?
Which files do I have to open with that program and in which pack do I find them?
How do I save those files into my pack in order to have the faction color not interfer with them?



This is the second mod that I am working on and I believe to have jumped into somewhat to deep waters, but I am determined to finish this and I would be really greatfull for any help.