Problem with skinning models

[L_Snake2001]

I've been following these tutorials;

http://www.hl2world.com/wiki/index.php/Reskinning_Models and also;
http://tutorials.moddb.com/97/How-to-make-skins/

I think I've done everything according to the tutorials but I can't seem to get my skins to appear. I think the bit I may be slipping up on is where to put the VTF's. The first tutorial says half-life2/hl2/materials but when I put the folder there nothing happens. The second tutorial says half-life2/hl2/materials/models but since putting it here it has caused all the skins to turn a purple and black checkered pattern except for the face. While writing this I have discovered that removing the folder with my skins fixes this problem.

In any case does anyone have an idea what I'm doing wrong? I'm kind of hoping it's a common problem I'm slipping up on.

Cheers

 

[efter]

Sometimes it's because the location of the texture files (VMT and VTF) is not right in the .qc file.
Here's a utility that is handy for determining where the texture path issue is. Just drag and drop your .mdl file over the MDLTextureInfo.exe file and it will tell you what folder it is trying to get the textures from.