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You'd be surprised at how your sense of reality gets altered by looking at a replica of something real... You may want to go outside, take a walk and look at how real machines react to weathering, look at the various parts of your car, or any older car; how does the rust form? How do things blacken from exhaust?  How does mud streak, how does it encrust tires?

Look through books about real aeroplanes, military and otherwise, what are the details you notice that need to be added to your model?

1.Oil and Soot Residue

Use a small amount of gloss black, to which you should add a minute amount of glossy dark brown paint.  apply this mixture to any part of the plane's engine which would normally be encrusted wit oil and soot residue.  Then, apply a very small amount of matte black paint on the protruding sections of these details using a very fine brush.

To make this look absolutely real, apply a small amount of paint thinner using a cotton swab, and don't worry if any of it leaks around the part, this will lighten the edges down to the primer (very slightly), and the leaks will look like oil residue.  All the matte black area which remain will look like sooty residue.  You can also mix thinner with some matte black paint to create a light mixture you can apply anywhere you feel burn marks should appear.  Be careful and make sure there is no excess mixture on your brush or cotton swab, as burn marks never really leave drips and streaks.

Be very careful when using thinner because it is very volatile and can easily leak on some undesired areas of your model.  If you're not comfortable with this method, faded soot lines can also be made using chalky pastels, or airbrush.

2. Scuffs and Scratches

Now that you have spent all this time being careful around your model, it's time to partake in a little bit of disfiguring.  take a fine hobby knife and dip it into silver paint, then score very tiny areas where natural damage could occur.  you may also apply to silver to the edges of bolts, etc., indicating areas which have recently been touched by wrenches, or scraped against other things.

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