I would recommend doing model keyframes for a realistic "break apart" effect and simply play it. Granted that requires some modeller skillz. 
Another idea for a cheap shatter effect is to obtain the information about the triangles in the model, and create a new TriMesh with triangles (not strips not fans) and move these triangles with some randomness and outwards direction, as well as modifying the AlphaState of the mesh to progressively make them disappear.
darkfrog said:
I would recommend doing model keyframes for a realistic "break apart" effect and simply play it. Granted that requires some modeller skillz. ;)
my modeller already threatened to kill me if i tell him to make keyframes for every single model we got. what about using particles and the model as an emitter? or does it have to be a geometry?
HamsterofDeath said:
my modeller already threatened to kill me if i tell him to make keyframes for every single model we got. what about using particles and the model as an emitter? or does it have to be a geometry?
3DS MAX had an "explosion" or something (I forget the exact name) particle emitter that you could attach to a model to do exactly what you want here. No need to do it by hand, the emitter took parameters like how much velocity, randomness, etc. and would "shatter" a model into triangles and send them spiraling off. I used it in many MAX animations I made several years back.
Not sure if you're using MAX, but I have to think this kind of thing exists for other modeling tools as well, just wanted to let you know there are tools out there that make it easy to implement darkfrog's suggestion.
jmetest.effects.TestBatchParticles