Your tools make a big difference with 3D texturing, the better the tools, the easier it is to get good results which would otherwise require a lot of skill, experience and time. I use modo to model, UV and do most of my texturing, with a bit of work in photoshop. The ability to bake textures is a really huge help, you can use lots of different types of mapping to get textures onto the model and procedurals (like noise and occlusion) to add wear and dirt, and then bake the results to a single texture image. It means the texture is 80% done before you even start painting on it by hand to make small adjustments. Being able to paint directly on the model in the 3D viewport is really nice too, it's so much easier than painting over your UV templates in 2D photoshop and then jumping back to 3D to check the results all the time.

Modo is getting really pricey now, but there are other programs that might be worth a look to see what they can do for you, 3DCoat, Blacksmith, Zbrush, Blender etc.