Requesting some tips

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Hi, this here is a model I've been working on in Blender 2.68. I need to UV map and texture it but have absolutely no skill with that. I would appreciate it if someone could tell me how or point me to helpful tutorials. I know that blender models have to be exported using 2.48b, and so far I can get it to import into 2.48b when I save as a legacy .blend file. However, I still need to do texturing before nifscripts will allow me to export it as a nif. I wonder if this is even possible. Alternatively, if I can't even get it to work, I will upload the files as a modder's resource and see what happens with that.
Oh and this is going to be the base Longsword from Fable/Fable - The Lost Chapters.