After a rather more protracted effort than it should have been, I've finally finished the vans and here they are:

From left to right , ex LNER fruit, BR vent van, and rebuilt BR Shock. And yes , the Fruit and Shock still need couplings.

Unfortunately I've noticed the chassis on the vent van is not 100% square . It seems to run fine, because it's been out on the shunting plank without trouble - it was only some time later that I noticed a fractional rock when stood on a mirror. Since I built it on a flat surface and (as far as I was aware) it was fine then, i don't quite know what has happened . I suspect part of the problem may be the excellent fit of the parts . On the other two vans the wheels are a little loose in their bearings , and there is a bit of slop which will accommodate any slight irregularities. But on this van the whole assembly is tight and the axles have no slop at all.

I'm not sure what , if anything, I can do. The van seems to run fine in practice , and possibly will do, though now I know it's not 100% right I'm uncomfortable and a touch annoyed with myself. The only thing that comes to mind it to attempt to shift the errant bearing slightly with the tip of a hot soldering iron - either down fractionally, or in, which would then make the wheelset a slightly loose fit, and the slop would presumably solve the problem

The box lettering on the Fruit is rather larger than the photograph I have (in Cheona Wagons 2) shows. However an old set of BR transfers (GeeDee?) had a ready made up transfer for the BR built batch of this wagon type and so I used that . The vac cylinder was replaced with an ABS one (I needed extra weight) and the buffers are ABS LNER fitted.

The Shock shows why I thought it worth preserving the body. The brake shoes and cross rods on the new underframe aren't perfect - trying to cut down the Red Panda shoe moulding is not nice and I had to work round the lead weights stuck on underneath. I've added as much more as I can, but it's still only a fraction over 40g and really a bit light

Fruit and BR Vent vans have canvas roofs (one ply of tissue stuck to the roof with solvent - I didn't dare try it on a painted body) and a suitably motley array of rainstrips, based on photos in the Cheona book (micro rod or strip ) . The end cappings were slivers of very thin card or think paper

And yes , I will try to get the couplings on this weekend