Back in 2017 I started a pair of Connoisseur NER V1/3 and an NER V4 Brake vans, which for reasons that I forget, were put aside. Then in 2021 I painted and lettered the the V1/3’s but only painted the V4 which was left unlettered and again they were put aside.

Since setting up my home office I have deliberately left a number of my shelf queens on display in the hope that eventually their unfinished state would irritate me into doing something about them. This last week in preparation for lettering some wagons for a friend I decided that I would get the V4 lettered, more on that later.

I also took the opportunity to glaze and finish the V1/3’s. Having glazed them I noted that the step boards were a bit on the thin side being etched from the same material as the body. Had they still been unpainted I might have soldered a second layer of thin etch strip to the bottoms to beef them up a bit but with them being painted I looked for other options.

I did consider adding coffee stirrers but they would have been too thick and then I remembered that Brian Dale ([USER=1062]@oldravendale[/USER] )  had kindly let me have a bag of offcuts of veneer. Strips of veneer were enough to thicken the step boards without making them appear grossly over scale.

I cut the strips and glued them to the existing steps with pva, holding them in place until they dried with mini wooden clothes pegs. These were bought on a whim from a craft shop thinking that they might be useful at some point.