What am I doing wrong?

[Nautica]

For about 5 months now I've been attempting to create NPC to PC mods such as the Ark Angel's gear as playable gear. Now that I've seen such mods are more than possible, I've been attempting to replicate the process with horrible results. The MQO file is picture perfect, and I've the correct vertex numbers in the MCD files, but when I use model viewer to convert MCD to DAT, it ends up a garbled horrible mess. The mods I'm attempting I know are possible, such as Prince Trion's sword and shield, Elvaan Ark Angel's sword and shield, both for hume female. I'm also trying to extract Lion's face to use as a playable one. I've managed to succcessfully extract Eshan'tarl's face for use, but it was easy seeing how her base body was that of a hume female. Lion's is much more difficult, but I know it's possible seeing how someone's managed to extract Verena and Cornelia, and even Lion's shirt. If anyone can tell me what I'm doing wrong, I'd be forever grateful. I have a feeling that it's something so descisively easy, I'll feel stupid for the remainder of the year. ^^ I'm using Metasequoia, Photoshop 7.0 with DDS plugin, Text Edit, and Model Viewer. I have VRD, but can't understand it to save my life. >< Plus, I'm not always near an internet connection to use it or to even tom-fooler around with. Thanks alot for any help offered. I'll be more than happy to share all of my potential custom mods once I resolve this issue.