Importing models into a map ?

What I've tried to do is import a custom model into my map, but I get a cannot load "...mdl" message when I try to use it.

So I tried to do something simplier, extract a blp & mdx from the original war3.mpq file. Knowing that if this works, there is a problem with my model file. Anyway, that doesn't work either :(.

What I did is extract the Catapult.mdx & Catapult.blp files, and imported them into my map with this path:
war3mapImported\Custom\Catapult.mdx
war3mapImported\Custom\Catapult.blp

I made a new custom unit, and tried setting its model to
war3mapImported\Custom\Catapult
Same error message, if I add a .mdx or .mdl, I get the same error message.

If I add both mdx & blp files to my war3patch.mpq, it works! Using the path called "Custom\Catapult.*", if I set the model to Custom\Catapult, it works fine.

What is up here? Is there a different technique to use when importing models into maps vs mpqs? Can it be done? I know the world editor doesn't delete the files when I save the map, so that isn't it...

Any ideas?

Try putting the files in your root war3 directory, and then editing your map to use that path, and then when your done import the models.