1: I redid everything from scratch when I did my bf110 and me109e skins. That includes wheels, gear struts, exhausts, etc. I used the basic ones for a template. I did this because the default tex on those models is 256x256, and it looks like crap at 1024. However on my 190s I merely "tweaked" existing stuff in those areas.
2: On my last one, I had the panel lines broken down into major areas, depending on which way the shadows would fall. I was consistent in my light shadows on the panel lines, so that one wing didn't have "back left" and the other "front right" shadows, if you get my drift. On top of that I had a full layer of panel lines blurred to hell and gone, but at low opacity. THEN I had another layer unblurred (or, less so) that just had the accent panel lines -- gear doors, flaps, hatches, etc).
THEN I divided my rivets up into 2 areas: those over light paint and those over dark paint. I changed the layer options for both to look best for their own color areas. Then blurred them. Then put an untouched rivet layer over this at very low opacity.
Granted this was just on my last skin, which I really went overboard on. I was trying some new things and I think it looks great, but now that I've tried them I'm going to tone them down for the next skin.
