Almost any Stainless steel tubing could work, with a bit of polishing.

So, I finally got to play with the aluminum tape for a couple of hours and while not a complete success I wouldn't call it a total failure. The stuff I have is about .1mm thick and a good portion of that is the adhesive which is rubbery, soft and thick so it shows dents and marks real well. I tried it on a 1/35 shock from an old Academy M60. I just sanded down the mold seams but didn't clean them up real well because I wanted to see if surface defects would show through like bare metal foil. They do, but the thickness of the tape softened them. I burnished it down it an rubber eraser and a tooth pick to try to eliminate the seam but it was still visible. I then tried it on two brass tubes, one 2.4 mm outside diameter and the the other 9.5mm O.D. I found the smaller the item you are covering the better because it doesn't show defects or dents as much. Burnishing with an eraser polished it up and helped it lay flat. I also polished it up with a bit of metal polish and it looked really good, like the shiny piston rod on a hydraulic cylinder. Then for entertainments sake I decided to see if it could be used on large flat areas with surface features like those on an airplane wing with panel lines. Since I didn't have a wing available I used the upper hull of a Dragon Elefant that had a textured surface, weld seams and pointy projections. The tape was too thick to show the surface texture and while it worked into the weld seams it was too thick to show the weld detail very well and wouldn't work at all around the projections like you can do with bare metal foil. So this stuff will work well for shocks and hydraulic cylinders but that's about it. I blame the thickness of the adhesive for the lack of being able to show detail. Careful planning to put the seam where it won't be seen will be needed though the seam was minor. And I think it would look more realistic than chrome as shocks and rods are not mirror bright but have very fine lines that reduce the reflectivity of the metal. It also looks much better than any paint I've seen. I'll see if I can get pictures and post them.

Thanks for going the extra steps on this, Patrick! It all sounds good and encouraging, we'll only have to see what can be done about the seems.

If you have the chance to upload some images that would be of great help, I'm sure.

Thanks again!

I have actually pretty easy access as I work in the medical business. But you can find the stuff as single use cannulas or hollow needels on ebay (German: Einmalkanuele). For human use diameters from 0,42 mm up to 0,9 mm are common, for veterinarian use up to 2,0 mm. For greater sizes I guess you have to look for stainless steel tubes.
I strongly recommend not to cut even the small sized ones with a plier as it will ruin the plier and squeeze the cut end out of the round shape.
With the appropriate combination of diameters you can even build actuators as they are (almost) slide to fit. Trimming after cutting can be done with a diamond file as you use for your photo etched parts (I love my Tamiya one; even if it makes you cry when you have to pay for it).
Hope this helps.
Have fun and success whith whichever technique you use!

Cheers Michael