Half-Life Deathmatch Skin files
These are the necessary files to create new skins for the five deathmatch models released with Half-Life, plus three more that were released in an updated Models Developer Kit. All other files from this SDK have not been included, to make this a smaller file to download, plus organize it a little differently.
Download it: Otis' Model Viewer 64 K
Download it: Palette Merge 310 K
These are the necessary files to create new skins for the five deathmatch models released with Half-Life, plus three more that were released in an updated Models Developer Kit, and the Recon Grunt. All other files from this SDK have not been included, to make this a smaller file to download, plus organize it a little differently.
A new Editing .mdl Skins tutorial has been added to this to edit the Recon Grunt skin with the Model Viewer from the Half-Life Workshop. Also, Palette Merge has been added for those who want an easier way to put together a correct palette with team colors. It includes a tutorial on how to use it.
Models/ folder:
I put the player .qc files here and edited them a little to help it find everything. I've included .bat files to make it easy to compile the models.
Models/DMatch folders:
The skins are in separate subfolders of Models/DMatch/ and correspond to each model's name. Also included are the model files, which can't be modified. Get the SDK to do that. The recon.mdl is here as well, if you want to edit it's skin.
Models/Player folders:
All the player animations are in this folder, and I've created subfolders for the compiled models to go in.
Models/html folder:
These are just the pictures for this document. Don't use these for skins.
Basic Tutorial
The DM_Base.bmp and DM_Face.bmp are the ones you'll be changing. They are 256 color .bmp files. You have to reserve some colors in DM_Base.bmp for team colors. Don't use these colors in the rest of the skin or else they'll change too. Specifically, these are color registers 160 to 224 or in other words, rows 11 to 14. I have highlighted these colors in the palettes below. They are just a gradient fill from light to dark of the same color. You get 32 colors for each set. Traditionally, one is for pants, the other for the shirt but you can get creative and assign it to different areas instead. The rest of the palette can be changed, as well as all of the DM_Face.bmp palette. Remember that these are not game palettes, so you don't have to download these. Make sure you reserve those areas for team colors, but realize that the color you choose will be selectable and changed in the multiplayer menu.

1 > Edit the skins by painting over them. Make a backup of the original first though. You can use the same palette or set it to RGB, but remember to convert it back to 256 color when you're done. Photoshop makes it easy to edit the palette since you can set multiple colors with a gradient fill. Whatever program you use, you'll need to have your team colors in the correct registers of the DM_Base.bmp palette. There is a special chrome texture used for Barney, Gina, the Helmeted player and the Robot Grunt. It can be changed, but if you wanted to totally remove it from the model, you would have to get the SDK and edit the model itself. |
An example of changing the skin.

2 > Run the appropriate .bat file for your model. Make sure your skins are still in the /models/dmatch/... folder, so it will include them in the compile.
3 > When it's finished, create a subfolder of /Half-Life/valve/models/player/... and copy the .mdl file there. The folder needs to be named the same as the model and the multiplayer bitmap. For example, if you make a new skin for Gina, you can name the folder /Half-Life/valve/models/player/NewGina and rename the model to NewGina.mdl and call your bitmap NewGina.bmp.
4 > You need to take a screenshot of your new player model to have in the multiplayer menu. Take a screen capture of it in Otis' Model Viewer, mentioned above. Or, to take a screenshot of it in Half-Life, get to the Multiplayer Menu in the game. Since you don't have this picture in the folder with your .mdl yet, your player model will have a black screen. Select that player and join the game. After you've taken the screenshot with F5, blacken the background around the model, and create a palette with the team colors in rows 11 to 14. Palette Merge makes it easier to manipulate the palette. Note that the colors are reversed compared to the dm_base.bmp palette. Whatever colors were in rows 11 and 12 will now go in rows 13 and 14. Crop it to 164 wide x 200 tall pixels and save it as a 256 color .bmp with your .mdl.

Multiplayer screenshot
Palette created with Palette Merge

Barney
Barney is pretty easy to paint over. He has a chrome texture for his helmet. The helmet is at the top right and the gun holster is at the bottom right.

Face.bmp | Face Palette
DM_Base.bmp | DM_Base Palette
Helmet_Chrome.bmp |

Gordon
Gordon's DM_Base.bmp is the same as the one for Gina and the Helmeted Player. The helmet is in this skin, except for the chrome part. See the Helmeted Player's DM_Base Template for details. Plus there are extra skins in certain areas since there are low-res and high-res models for these three players.

DM_Face.bmp | DM_Face Palette
DM_Base.bmp | DM_Base Palette

Gina
Gina uses a chrome texture for her hair-needles only in the high-res model. See the Helmeted Player's DM_Base Template for details which apply to Gina's DM_Base.bmp.

DM_Face.bmp | DM_Face Palette
DM_Base.bmp | DM_Base Palette
PLAYER_Chrome1.bmp |

Helmeted Player
The Helmeted Player model uses a chrome texture for the visor of the helmet. There are extra textures for the low and high res models.

DM_Base.bmp | DM_Base Palette
PLAYER_Chrome1.bmp | DM_Base_Template.bmp

Page 2