Making use of shooter game template in 4.12.3

I was messing around with it and ran into some other issues. (i.e. the weapon not being attached to the players hands and it not functioning if I attach it to the hand socket. Only visible from player perspective like above) Would it be easier just to start from scratch (no templates) and work it from there without using a separate mesh for the first person perspective? Also having separate issues with anims not working.