Thanks Alfred, but being new to Affinity, at least to this depth, I don't get it. My biggest issue is trying to figure out where things are in Affinity, and exactly what they mean. I have Affinity Designer WorkBook, which is a very good book, but in a lot of cases the Author points out to use some particular Tool, but to find that tool can be difficult, at least for me.
For example I got the 'Expand Stroke' in your first step, but when you say 'Add', what am I adding and how do I Add it ? Also, I see the 'Expand Stroke' converts my individual lines into long narrow rectangles. Surely this isn't what I want.