"The Longest Journey Begins...

...with a single footstep."

Or in this case the smallest layout begins with a single wagon.

Weathered Bachmann Plywood Van
 

I've been slowly stockpiling bits and pieces for a few weeks now. One of the myths of micro layouts is that they are always cheap and quick to build, an issue I'll address in my next post, but for now take it from me that it can end up being an expensive business when you are starting from scratch.  Amongst my earliest purchases was the Model Rail Sentinel shunter to provide some motive power, and the first wagon was this Bachmann 12t plywood ventilated van.

There are some excellent ready weathered wagons available and they do a weathered version of this, but it didn't happen to be in stock at the time. Trust me, had it been I would have bought it because I don't intend to make unnecessary work for myself.

Out of the box, as you might expect from a plywood sided wagon, it looked very flat, not helped because in my opinion self coloured bauxite plastic never looks right. So I took the chance to try out some Modelmates weathering dyes. The jury is definitely out where I'm concerned. In the past I've used weathering powders and I found I had much less control with these sprays. I'll persevere though, and will give the underframe a little more dedicated attention. I also did the usual trick of covering the roof with a single ply of toilet tissue soaked in solvent which makes a big difference. The other obvious task to do is to add vacuum pipes.