Thanks Sergio & Whulsey!
What I have in mind is a well-worn and often used flying tank. So onto paint chipping: I used a sponge to apply bright orange "chips" to the upper hull, and brighter red chips to the lower hull (since it is darker).
This took forever, so to get a better idea of the final look (I'm impatient like that) I decided to finish off one wing, by filling in the chips with a dark gray, and then adding exposed metal in the most work places.
Here's a closeup of the flaperon and vtol fan:
