I've been teaching myself the best I can using photoshop for some time now, but I need some more specific help if I am to progress further; it seems when one gets down to skinning a Venator, everything comes to pieces (

I'm alright at skinning, I guess, take my Saboath frigate skin as an example to judge me by:

Put simply, I need some more specific advice on base texture synthesis; hopefully some help on the Venator too. I am rather stuck on skinning it because I look at what I'm aiming for, which I'm quite confident, from my other work, I could do; if I knew how, but when it comes down to making that Venator hull texture and getting the panelling to stand out from it (I know about bumpmaps; that's not what I'm on about), I come to a complete blank; I've tried a variety of improvisations but can't think how to get that hull texture right.
I hope that some more experienced skinners come across this and can and will help,
Thanks,
Chris
LTCC