They're all white, as are armors. Picture : http://img143.imageshack.us/my.php?image=ezquake002pz0.jpg and no, they were not white with ez 1.8.

is it .md3 files?
Mine got all white when i didnt put both textures and models in qw/progs/
When its .md3 you have to both in qw/progs/ and when its .mdl you but the mdl in qw/progs/ and the texture in qw/texture/models.

If you had them in separate paks, check pak.lst in ezquake folder, i was having problems with models too, simply because this file was overwrited by installator.

ah thanks, it was loading md3 files from a funny place. :-)