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I am starting a stormcast army with the new box set, and want to have battle damage on their armour and cloaks- how do I do this? Carve out little bits of plastic and fill it in with a wash/black? What about for bigger bits? Tears in fabric?
I want to have about as much damage as in proiteus'https://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/726181.page stonecast thread, it is what made me want to make them dirty and damaged in the first place.
I am nowhere near as skilled as proiteus', so want to make things as simple as possible but convincing. Any links to extra helpful videos or quick tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

I wouldn't start hacking into your models, the best place to start with battle damage is to paint on nicks, wear and tear, and the like.

None of this is gonna work on a metallic armour but if you go with any non metallic colour scheme you have a few options.
First pick if you want the wear and tear to look new or old, if new chose a silver, if old a brown. Then depending on the main armour colour of your scheme make it either a light or dark brown/silver. Either by very selectively painting it on, stippling/drybrushing it on, or getting a torn bit of the fine sponges GW used to put in metal blisters (I'm sure you can find something else appropriate for this).

You want to then paint/sponge on the battle damage where it's mostly going to actually be found. Knee pads, armour trim, the shield, etc. Highlighting the top edges of these 'chips' with a lighter colour or the bottom edge with a darker colour will add a little more of a three dimensional look to it and make it appear as if the armour has chipped. You can also add scratches with a fine brush by simply streaking a line across a flat surface and again highlight/underline it (works great for the shields or a chest plate and really adds character).

A couple of old examples of my stuff using that technique:




And a better one that isn't mine but the top edge is a really good example:


You can also try an actual chipping medium from any of the companies that make them (Vellejo does and you should be able to find that everywhere) which can give REALLY cool results but requires.. well not actually more effort it's a really simple technique but you'll have a lot to learn to get it to work and probably requires an airbrush. Basically the idea is you paint your model silver or rust brown or whatever, cover it in a chipping medium, then paint the actual armour colours over that. Then with a wet, stiff, brush you can scrub off the chipping medium and the armour layer on top of it, leaving the under colour visible.


If you still want them even dirtier weathering pigments are really easy to do and make everything nice and dusty and how I did these bases:




Basically it's just a 'dust' made of the part of paint that gives it colour without any of the liquids that make it paint, you can easily drybrush it on and then dab it with white spirits to lock it in place while keeping the dusty appearance.

If you've wondered about the cool streaking you've seen on the tanks that's another fun weathering technique for rust streaks, oil stains, etc that are probably a fair bit more advanced and not really all that useful on infantry, but you could look at a company called MiG who does a lot of these effects. If you did want to give it a try though the techniques are basically to varnish your model, then use an oil paint to dab a little colour on, then with a brush wet with white spirits you brush the dab of paint in a single direction and take most of it off, leaving only a little tint of colour where it's been streaked down.
(Which is what I was doing on this bad boy who I will jump at any excuse to post



Good introductory paint on chipping with Duncan: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Onspoa5N6Zw
Another simple one with a sponge: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNBeRdi_cf8
A Vellejo chipping medium tutorial/review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CNhG4H38gI
(They mention the hairspray technique, and there is one too with salt, neither of which I mentioned because I myself have never used them but might be worth googling)
A tutorial for pigments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU7jeb9drmM
And a quick oil streaking just because: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qwVvHYn5BvE

You'll be able to find a lot more in depth tutorials for all of them on youtube, I just looked for the quick and simple ones.
I also cannot recommend enough The Weathering Magazine, especially since one of it's recent issues is a back to basics theme.
https://www.migjimenez.com/en/english-version/1404-twm-issue-21-english.html

Hope some of that helps, I ing LOVE weathering and really think we mini wargamers have a lot to learn from the historical folks with their oils, enamels, pigments, etc

Thank you for the huge reply!

I am trying to get this effect on a dark silver. I have tried physically making cuts and filing them in (with rhinox hide) but it looks a little flat on the model. Is there no way to do damage on silver? I want to make the army dark and gritty with lots of damage as if they have been fighting for a long time. Can I use the sponge on silver? Do I paint on cracks? What colours do I use to make them visible? It's all a little overwhelming trying new things.

-edit-
After re-rereading your post, it seems I want to use a dark brown, and stipple on chips as well as paint on cracks and gouges. I gather I use the dark colour as a base and highlight that with a lighter one. Also, parts of the model is glowing and I want this to glow over the damage. I think that means I should apply glow after damage & blood right? And finally, is flicking on blood going to ruin the aesthetic (if I get it to work)?

Why not weather the base armor silver a little darker (lots of wash grim and buildup but fresh chips would be bright silver/aluminum(vma)

Yeah you can do silver on silver if you stick to the extremes with a very dark silver armour and the lighter colour showing through where the chips and scratches are revealing the cleaner fresh metal underneath, or if you go a lighter colour on top the damage would then be dirtier and more worn so then darker underneath.

Google images can provide some good, simple inspiration too, like these for weathered silver and steel:





As for the glow and blood, yes the glow should go over all other effects. Flicking on blood is fine, but you probably want to focus on the areas where it is likely to fall. Shields, and weapons will get the most, a touch on the face will add character to a hero unit, or maybe a splattering on a chest, but don't go overboard.
I like this guy as an example of blood effects, it's subtle, it is a little darker and the silver has been touched up over it so it looks old and dried. You can certainly go more than that and make it look fresher by not touching up the silver, but using one effect over the other would make it extra bloody.

For weathering and battle damage your best bet is to look at Scale Models for stuff like WW2 tanks and what not. Those are going to have effects like filters, stippling, mud, chips, scratches, oil streaks, rust, etc...