I hadn't considered vacuum forming, but it is indeed a practicable method of accomplishing corrugations and many other features. As with any method, they all have their advantages and disadvantages.
Some of the advantages include light weight, a continuous detailed surface that's ready for finishing and repeatability. Repeatability is a fantastic characteristic to have in a process if you need multiple identical parts and with vacuum forming such parts can be made quickly and relatively easily. This comes at a cost however, being that you have to fashion an exact replica of the part you want (a plug) so it may or may not be worth while to use this process if only a single part is needed.
Another disadvantage to this process is that there is always some loss of detail or at least the crispness of the detail. The amount of detail loss will be directly proportional to the thickness of the material used.
On a positive note, vacuum formed parts always seemed to me like they are begging to be painted and this is a great characteristic for a base material to have if you are going to be bold enough to explore the possibility of chrome paint. Yes, I said CHROME PAINT.
No, no, no, no, no!!! I am NOT talking about a spray can of Krylon or Rustoleum from the hardware store!!!
There are now and have been for some time, processes available that let you literally spray on a chrome finish that's virtually indistinguishable from real chrome! You can learn more about it on YouTube.
Of course, now we're talking about chrome and not polished aluminum, but the appearance has a striking similarity to polished aluminum and the effect can be far more realistic than other methods such as FliteMetal can ever achieve.
If you do a bit of research, you will find that there are a few different products and processes available to achieve that coveted "chrome" look. You will also discover that it's not so cheap or simple to do and you might even consider it crazy to go to such efforts... as crazy as what some model builders go through to achieve an authentic looking model.
