[WotLK][question] Using creature wing animations as spell visuals

[mharr]

I just started playing around with a home LAN server, and ended up on a personal mission to create some animated wing options for WotLK.  I've found that I can use creature models as spell effects, and attach them to any player model part by creating new entries in SpellVisualKitModelAttach.dbc and SpellVisualEffectName.dbc, so I figure all I have to do now is edit some creature meshes to remove all their non-wing parts.  I've run into a slight problem with that.

I can't find a mesh editor that will load the Wrath m2 files.  I've tried exporting them with Model Viewer and My Warcraft Studio (Chrome really didn't like the look of that download link, should that worry me?) and mdlvis chokes and dies on both.  I've had a look around the tutorial sections here, and it seems to be either software I already have or dead links.  What are people using to modify meshes these days?

Edit:
Some more googling today unearthed some old threads suggesting you can't directly edit Wrath models, and have to convert them back to BC format first?  Again though, dead links.  Does anyone know what Phucko1 was referencing here?  http://www.modcraft.io/index.php?topic=3718.msg20251#msg20251

How are y'all working with Warlords and Pandaria meshes if the go-to mesh editor stopped working after BC?

[Magnekro]

wotlk: m2mod3 and blender 2.49 https://github.com/merfed/Coffee/tree/master/Tools/M2/M2Mod3/Releases/1.22 http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.49/
wod: m2mod redux and blender 2.73 http://www.modcraft.io/index.php?topic=8864.msg43529 http://download.blender.org/release/Blender2.73/
clearly you didn't read the tutorial forum at all.

[mharr]

OMG live download links, thank you!

clearly you didn't read the tutorial forum at all.

Oh, and some obligatory snark.   Which tutorial forum are you referring to?  Because the menu link on the left doesn't have anything obviously related to .m2 editing, it's all map modding and how to build .mpq patches, and the WotLK Tutorial sub is just a link to one guy's Youtube channel.  I'd gotten as far as this on my own: http://www.modcraft.io/index.php?topic=7451.0 , but once again, dead download links.

I googled the forum again armed with your assistance, and the first thing I found was someone back in June asking basically this same question and getting no answers after 200+ views.  http://www.modcraft.io/index.php?topic=11359.0

I really appreciate the help, but I gotta tell you these things are not easy to navigate when you don't know any of the words yet.  It's a whole lot of Moss!