To do this tutorial you will need a working knowledge of PSP. If you are new to PSP, or have a problem doing this tutorial, you can find me at Raven's PSP Forum, be happy to help you out.

You also need 2 Gradients, Steel and Lilac.
Download, unzip the files and place them in your gradients folder.
  Click here to download. Click here to download.

There is an optional step that uses a light setting I named "steel".
Click here to download, unzip the file and place it in your PSP 8 presets folder.

This is an easy tutorial, I've included many screen shots to try to show each step in detail. 

Step 1

Open a new image 500 X 500
Set the background to Transparent.  

Open your Materials Palette and find the "mqc Lilac" Gradient.
Set it like this.

Flood Fill your image. ( shown at 50% )

If you'd rather something like this, set the Style to Linear, Repeat 0, Angle 0.

Note: If you want a little different look adjust the setting on "Detail"

Note: To make thicker lines adjust the setting on "Blur".

Step 4

Go to Layers>New Raster Layer.
Open your Materials Palette, find the "mqc Steel" Gradient.
Set the Repeats to 1-Set the Style to Linear.
I set the Angle to 325, but you can use any setting you want for that.
Flood Fill Layer 2.

Step 5

Go to your tool bar and find the Warp Brush.

Use the Warp Brush to smudge the gradient. 
These are the settings I used but you can set it anyway you like.

Note: Generally, your metal will be darkest where the gradient is lightest.

Step 6

Go to Adjust>Blur>Gaussian Blur. Set it to 60.
Go to Adjust>Add/Remove Noise>Add Noise.
Set it to Noise-3, check Gaussian and Monochrome.

Go to Adjust>Blur>Motion Blur.
Set it to Angle-315 Strength-100.
Repeat the Motion Blur.

Note: The amount of Gaussian Blur to use varies with the size of the image.
Smaller image = less blur, 
Larger image = more blur.

If your image looks like this increase the amount of blur.

 Here I'm using Overlay.

Step 10

Go to Adjust>Sharpen>Unsharp Mask.
Use the Default setting.

When you set the blend mode it will look like you didn't add anything to your image but if you hold your mouse over layer 2 on the layer palette you can see it.

Go to Layers>Merge>Merge Down.

Go to Adjust>Color Balance>Manual Color Correction.
Click on the center button and "navigate to the top left corner of your image.
 

Select a small portion of the lightest area you see in the preview window.

Uncheck Preserve saturation.
Click on the presets for Metals.
Find one you like and click on it.

If none of the presets are exactly what you want, choose one close to what you want.
Click on "Manual target color" and adjust the Hue, Saturation and Lightness.

You should come up with something you like.:)

That's it, you're done.:) 

If you need some screws for your metal plate, go here.

If you need some metallic text go here or here.

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