4Ground Stairs - A Simple Upgrade

Something very easy I stumbled upon a few weeks ago while working on the Sheriff's Office was this simple upgrade to the 4Ground stairs.

I finally had a chance to complete this little project earlier in the week as I'm waiting for some items to arrive in the mail for completing the 4Ground Bank kit.

There was always something a little off in my eye with the stairs not having any railings and I'm absolutely positive this decision was made strictly with game play in mind.

But I'm here to tell you, this upgrade does not prevent figures from being placed on the stairs at all!



The best part is if you have built any 4Ground kits you probably have all the materials sitting in a box (well, if you're like me and can't throw anything out that is), so it costs you nothing! This is all you need to complete one set of stairs - two ladders, two of the "Z" door attachments, and one (even though my picture shows two) piece of scrap wood for the long part of the hand railing. I use Gorilla Super Glue for all my builds (that way I don't have to wait for things to dry), an Xacto knife, and a small file are all the tools you need.

For the longer front side railing (above) on the landing I just use an Xacto knife to cut 8 rungs over to the right on the ladder. That leaves the right side of the rail with a straight edge - don't cut the left side though! Glue to the landing. I cut the middle part of the first "Z" out to make the first post at the bottom of the stair. The middle part of the second "Z" is used for the middle post - what's great about these pieces is that the angle of the "Z" where you've made your cut is the exact angle you need to match it up to the hand rail! Just cut the bottom straight and glue. The long part of the hand rail does take a little trimming and sanding to get your angle to sit as flush as possible to the top rail, middle and bottom post, but honestly it's minimal, and if I can do it anybody can!

Use your second ladder to make the back rail of the landing. Cut 5 rungs over and make your cut straight - again, don't cut the left side though - and glue to the landing. The straight edge here really matches up nicely to the front rail where you left those two little edges! That's it, simple!

Here's some pictures of all my stairs completed. All that is left to do is paint them with 4Grounds #8 paint, Burned Wood, to get a match!

 Here are some pictures of the completed painted stairs.

The only thing that is bothering me a bit, and I'd love some feedback on it, is should I paint the sides of the stairs? I went ahead and painted one set (below on the left), but I painted the inside that sits against the building so if the decision is not to paint the whole thing, no one will ever see this test piece :) !

As always, thanks for looking!
Ivor