@quietrob:

The first step to texturing is to UV map the model. I use UVmapper, which is a free app. Then you create texture maps if you are going to do something beyond a solid color. The textures are created by using a combination of displacement maps, bump maps and whatnot. 

UVmapper creates .bmp images that I convert to .png and use them in GIMP, the poor man's photoshop. That program can do most of the same things, just different techniques. I find images on the web (like I did with the texture for the MOS suit) and convert them for use. There are a couple artists on here who create texture maps and put them in the freebies. I credit them when I use their stuff, but by and large it was trial and error, and finding tutorials and of course, the infinite knowledge of bagginsbill on how to put it all together. 

If I had a nickle for ever time a woman told me to get lost, I could buy Manhattan.