Currently models with doColorShift set to false appear as white. This isn't very useful as you can do that by setting it to true and using color 1 1 1 1.
Something like player.setImageColorShift(%slot,%color) usable with this would be better, then you can have things colorshift to your hand colour or various paint colours without having to waste lots of datablocks.
Maybe some kind of un/hidenode for weapons too, then you can determine whether to show a hook or hand. (although you might be able to do this with some hacks and custom model animations that make it invisible)