I actually started getting a fairly decent aluminum using the color picker in the diffuse. I then took this color into PS, floded and added some noise and when I swap the texture into the diffuse channel, I lose all the anisotropy. I'm using a 2k color sheet. Two actually, one for the body, and one for the lens. I've been tweaking them independently hence the differing colors which I do want a subtle diff in the end between the two pieces.

So far everything is hand drawn so I wonder is there a way to take my text and combine it with the procedural color for the aluminum so the only bitmap info would be the numbers and letters and the rest of the aluminum is derived from the diffuse channel color picker?

what does ur spec map look like? mind posting that up