To get started, You will need: Photoshop (preferably ps7 or cs)
brush set. Get it here
To install the brushes, save them into any folder then goto your brush selector - click the arrow - load brushes.
Start with 500x500 sized canvas.
Step 1:
fill Canvas with a dark grey colour, I used #212121. Then goto Filter - Noise - Add noise. Use the following settings:
1%
Tick uniform
Tick monochromatic
It should look like this:
Grab the size 360 dirt brush I have included in the set. Now with the Dodge tool (under the paintbucket tool) on highlights at 100%,randomly dodge the canvas, lighter in some places to get a nice varied effect. It is important not to go overboard otherwise you may not get the desired effect.
It should now look like this:
It should now look similar to this:
Repeat all of step 2 only this time using the size 178 scratch brush included in the set.
Your texture should now look like this:
This is the final step to creating your metal texture. This step is optional depending on how warn you want your texture to look. Use the size 243 dirt brush on highlights at 40% and randomly dodge your texture to get a warn effect. You may sharpen if you want,
It should now look like this:
Muck around with your texture and try new things, It looks fairly plain at the moment but with lighting and effects it comes up very good, this texture will come in handy when wanting to skin things which use metal.
I applied a rust texture to mine and added a little lighting.
Heres how it looked:
