A great way to get started sub-skinning is with Wolfehunter's templates... They're a fantastic way to see all the different layers and shapes involved in a skin! I used them alot until I got the hang of everyting and then created my own sets... I believe his templates are available for download here at SubSIM... if not PM me and I'll send them to you. BTW - both his original and my custom templates are for Photoshop CS3 and later (I don't know if they'd work with anything else like GIMP, etc)
...oh and another helpful tip... start with a VII... I think they're easier to ge the hang of - especially the towers!
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GWX3.0 - SH3Commander - Thomsen's Sounds Pack - Manos Env Pro - Hitman's Optics - RB's UBoat Flags - Waterstream & Exhaust CombiMOD - Torpedo Damage Final - DiD
AMD Phenom II x6, 16GB DDR3, 2x NVidia GTX460 1GB, WIN7 64bit