Convolution and Physical Modelling

So I've been experimenting (in a relatively unscientific way) with using convolution to alter sounds, giving them the acoustic characteristics of different materials. I spent yesterday recording impacts on various metal objects using a contact mic and and two hammers - metal and rubber, I'm then using these as impulses with multiconvolve~ from the HISS tools library to process various sounds. It's working well so far and has produced some interesting results. As I'm primarily interested in this from a sound design perspective, so if it sounds useful - then it is useful, but I'm curious as to what you think of this is a technique, is it used elsewhere, or if there are any papers or articles you know of which are related?