Vertex Paint: Blending Textures, Pros & Cons

Hey Everyone,

I've been doing some work in UDK and started using the vertex paint mode. Its really really nice and easy to use.

However, I have seen quite a few people use evenly subdivided meshes when vertex painting. A lot of the time a similar result can be achieved by using a modular setup.

I'm wondering if, generally, this is the route most of you would take, or if vertex painting is widely used when its available.

Are there any pros or cons that someone who hasn't tackled a large project might not think of when starting to use vertex painting?

Or, when is is it appropriate to use vertex painting and when isn't it in your opinion.

I am going to be making some ruins and am considering using vertex paints to detail out some of the surface. Some areas already have lots of verts because they are needed to define the silhouette, but others don't. I could evenly subdivide the model, but that would add a lot of geo.

However, hacking up the model and doing a modular setup would add more geo as well and also be more time consuming.

Makes me wonder which the best way to go would be.

I also thought about using a set up where I hack out certain sections and only evenly divide those, that way I can isolate where I want to paint my detail with the vertex colors.

Somthing like this:

Is this a valid approach, do any of you have any experience doing something like this?