Some questions about TGE

Being new to creating models for the Torque-Engine, what would be the best
way to texture them? For our project, we would like to have damaged textures
for several parts of the model's body. Would it be useful to use a seperate
texture for every part of the body, or is there an easy way to exchange
standard textures with damaged textures programming-wise and thus make
seperate damaged and undamaged textures for the whole model (as usual). What
I'm trying to achieve is to exchange only part of the undamaged texture to
damaged texture, specifically where the model was hit.

Another question: How do you mix animations in Torque, example: I want to
animate torso and legs of an actor seperately, what would be the best way to
mix a running/standing/walking animation for the legs with different
animations of the torso? How would I best set up the bones? Or would it be
easier to "part" the model in two (torso/legs) and then put it back together
in the engine?

Answers or links would be very appreciated.