How can I change some armor and make it look different using the construction set?
Like if I wanted to turn the Elven armor red?
and....
How do I make it usable on my game?

Help please?

Oblivion has made it harder for modders to access the .bsa files than it was in Morrowind. But for a reason, they are much larger and have to be totally expanded and you have to make sure you have enough room on your hard drive for all of them. Can't expand just select ones.

So, the first thing you do is get the unYes- I have it downloaded but cannot find the link now ... so if you want to email me @ Sunburst_Studio@hotmail.com - I can send you the zipfile of the unpacker tool.

I copy/pasted this from a website discussing the procedure. Perhaps it can help you navigate the procedure. I haven't actually done it yet because I have a computer reformat coming up first.

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**checking and double-checking the data files section in the startup is the first place I always start.
I had the x in each of the small mods I made, but nothing had happened in the game ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ?

But I found out that you can't alter the existing .bsa files (which is what you do when you make a mod) unless you uncompress the Oblivion data files first. I wanted to place a sword from the data files on a rock, for instance, and that sword would not appear there as long as those data files could not be accessed ! !
They are in a compressed form, and the only way to use them, like the Meshes and Textures, etc., in Morrowind is to install and run the TES4BSA_exploder.
This utility uses Command-line instructions to "explode" the .bsa, and it worked just fine.
But it took me 2 days to figure out how to use it.
There is a tutorial that lists the entire sequence of commands and prompts to accomplish this.
If you just double-click on TES4BSA.exe, expecting it to run and fetch those .bsa files and convert them, then you have a long wait, because that won't work ! !
Once the files and .exe are all in the correct directory, you go to "Start">"Run">(type)"Cmd">(then if you need to, "CD(X):\", for change directory if that is necessary, to whatever drive (X) that NEW folder is where the .bsa files and TES4BSA.exe have been copied)
THEN you start typing commands.
Once you have performed and executed the correct sequences you can watch as your computer unpacks all of those (millions of them?) files. It takes several minutes for the Textures folder alone, and you can see why they were compressed in the first place because they won't all fit on a DVD. It takes at least 6 Gigs to store these "exploded" files on top of the Oblivion installation !

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packer tool ....