David,
Welcome to the forum! I'm down the road from you in Chesapeake!
I would think the main areas for damage would be the fenders. You can damage the fenders a couple ways.
1. Sand the kit fenders from the underside until they are extremely thin, then dip them in HOT water and bend the plastic with your fingers or a tool (to keep from getting burned).
2. Purchase the ABER brass fender set and bend them.
Personally, I would have performed things like fender bending prior to assembling the upper and lower hulls.
Fenders are just one way to damage your kit. You can also simulate a gun shield pierced by an artillery round by sanding the area to be pierced very thin. Then take your X-acto knife and make a small star pattern in the stryrene and gently bend in the inner star points to give it the "punched-through" look.
There are about a zillion other things you can do. You might want to take your question over to the diorama forum guys and get their take on it, too.
Hope this helps some.
Gip Winecoff