The Lights Work level of detail in texture?

Hi

I have some models that I revisited and in the process of updating. They are still works in progress. The full image gallery is at http://imgur.com/gallery/UAKFo, please feel free to comment on pictures.

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I would like to get the textures on the ships at the same level of The Light Works. The reference links are below. The problems I face are one of the ship saucers is not perfectly circular, getting the images to be without aliasing, creating a shader that shows realistic metal or unfinished metal.
The Light Works

http://www.stoacademy.com/downloads/wallpaper/139.jpg

http://scifanatic.wpengine.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/ax-USSAres4.jpg

Any thoughts are appreciated.

Vivienne

Twitter - @cgprojectsfx
DeviantArt - msviviane.deviantart.com

Most Starfleet ships have fairly subtle aztecing. You can see it on both of your reference images: the panels are all slightly different colors. You may also want some light grunge in there. Use some concrete or generic grunge textures; most of the metal textures you’ll find are for objects far smaller than starships.

Once you have your texture, plug it into the roughness input on your glossy shader and use RGB curves, brightness/contrast, MixRGB, or anything else to adjust the values until you get some nice, slightly varied, highlights.