Yeah I have started using cerakote for that very reason. I use H series, the bake on variety. Their satin aluminium colour is quite close, and it looks good, not like its been "painted". It's so thin you barely know its there. You do have to key the part though with sandblasting using 100 grit aluminium oxide, which adds quite a bit of time masking for that process. They do a clear aswell but I'm not sure if I will use it as have tried clear solutions before and ended up with oxidization creeping.Yes. Thats what ive seen done.
Most of my alloy parts ive done in my cheapo aqua blaster, which come out great. But will oxidise just like they did first time round. Ive not really explored the cerakote other than to see what was available. Certainly not used it yet.
Bare alu
Cerakoted
Awesome work