Rusty Roof

The exact location of the Jungle Cruise boathouse is somewhat vague (the Jungle Cruise itself carries guests through scenes from Cambodia, India, Africa, and the Amazon rainforest), but jungles are wet, humid places.

The boathouse, as one might expect of a building that is supposed to have stood in a steamy jungle since 1911, has a rusty corrugated tin roof.

I used plastic tin roof sheeting, mostly for safety reasons (two more roof sections will have to be added later). I had aluminum paint on hand, so I gave the shingles two coats to make the plastic look more convincing.

Then, it was time to add some rust. I'd heard good things about Dr. Ben's Scale Consortium, a line of realistic tints, stains, and pigments created for model railroads. Since so many model railroad products are plastic, I figured they would work on the plastic roofing. 

The accompanying booklet recommended dampening the surface with rubbing alcohol, then adding the solution. I tested this method but thought a random-rust-bloom look would be more realistic for 1/12 scale. So, I poured some of Dr. Ben's Realistic Rust weathering solution into an atomizer and got to work. 

Main roof section from the front. 

Tower top. I think it needs a little more rust.

Main section from the back.

The Dr. Ben's products work VERY well (I will be using a few more in other spots), but do note that they can be a little messy (tape off and cover up anything you don't want stained/weathered) and can be tricky to clean up. There are some rather messy stains in a spot that will, thankfully, be covered by flooring.

I'm working on the next task, but it's very time-consuming, so please be patient with me.