Future Shantytown / Modelmates Rust Effects Review

A few weeks ago, I saw a post on TMP that linked to a blog post promoting a model-railroad "rust in a bottle" paint product that looked very slick. Always being eager to snap up new products that enable my laziness as a painter, I found a source for the magic elixir in the UK and ordered a bottle (not cheap). After 10 days or so it arrived:

I had several half-finished 15mm corrugated iron shacks laying around that I had assembled and basecoated with Boltgun Metal, but (as you do) had lost motivation to finish. Being that I had wanted to run a 15mm sci-fi game soon, I recognized the szygy-like convergence of factors... half-finished terrain plus easy rust paint product plus running a game to use the terrain equals motivation to finish the project! So off I went...

The Rust Effect stuff is actually opaque, so after basecoating with Boltgun Metal, Dheneb Stone, and Astronomican Standard Grey, and layering Ultramarines Blue and Shadow Grey, I applied a wash of GW Gryphonne Sepia mixed with Devlan Mud and let it dry.

 Then the Rust Effect was liberally applied to the metal parts!

After that I painted the windows and solar panels in the usual "gem" style.

I added some faux-Korean characters for that "indeterminate future space language you'd find in a makeshift shantytown" look.

I'm pretty happy with how this project turned out. I think that the Rust Effect product will be quite useful when painting heavily weathered and/or Nurgleized stuff. It certainly worked a treat on these shacks. Easy to use and great looking results - how can you put a price on that???

Modelmates Rust Effect - 10.01GBP including shipping to Canada from Model Hobbies Limited