Oolite Bulletins

Hello guys,
i made a new model for a ship and im wondering if there is any trick or technic to create textures.
I made three ships earlier and the textures i made always looked like crap.
If anyone ones where a tutorial or something like this can be found iwould really like to hear it!
By the way what do you think about this or what could i improove?

This old thread contains many tips, I believe - perhaps worth a skim through?

You might find my Texture Tutorial useful. It is quite old now and probably needs updating, but will be a good starting point. It also only covers the basic texture and lightmap - there is not yet a section on normal and specular mapping.

I'd think the first important step is how to create the UV-Map. There are several ways - all of them with pros and cons. It's also depending on the software you're using and on the thing you want to achieve, e.g. if a custom shader should do some trickery.