Searching through the archives I found a really great chrome effect from 2001 using only Xara's vector and bitmap tools, no plugins. I couldn't get an effect anywhere near that good using EC4000. However, the really wierd thing is that I also couldn't reproduce anything that good using the technique explained in that thread so, can anybody here create something as good as that using a plugin or indeed using the method described in the mini-tutorial on that page?

In the meantime I'll keep on trying to create something worth posting.