Scratch Built Salvage Dog Truck

Inspiration

A few years ago I came across the Alpha Forge website and was impressed by the Salvage Dog Truck.  I searched the internet and found good prices on the line of miniatures at a hobby shop named "The Basement" I believe - the shop has gone out of business since.  I ordered a Salvage Crew special and an extra truck and some other things but was unsure of the length of time I would have to wait for my order.  I decided to try to scratch build a truck while I was waiting.

Tools

The tools needed for this project are a razor saw, a hobby knife, and a steel ruler.

Materials

The materials needed for this project are a small truck for the basis of the truck, a Games Workshop 40K Orc Truk bed end, the tracks from a Mega Bloks set or something similar, some plastic sheet, styrene glue, super glue, a turret mounted machine gun (I used one from the GW 40K range), some spare hubcaps and rims from an old model car, and some sprue,

The Project

In the picture, you can see that I based my salvage truck on a toy Tonka truck which was available in some kids meals some years ago.  If you want to use the same toy as the basis for your truck, check used toy and thrift stores - you may be surprised at what you can find there.
I removed the cab of the truck and the "hitch" on the back of the chassis, and removed the rear wheels of the truck.  I shortened the Mega Blok track by removing the middle section and glued the two ends to make my tracks using styrene cement.
Once I had gotten my tracks securely glued together, I cut the tracks down the middle lengthwise and attached the product to the chassis of the truck.
I built up the cab of the truck using sheet plastic and used a piece of Plastruct to make the drivers window.  I then used the hub caps and wheel rims off of the old model car to make the two hatches.  I used a piece of sprue to make the gun ring on the top of the cab and attached the modified GW machine gun to the top.
I cut the ends of the dump truck bed and attached the GW Truk end to one end and I cut and attached a piece of sheet plastic to the other end.

Conclusion

By the time my package arrived, I had already finished the scratch built salvage truck.  I quickly assembled a Salvage Truck from the order and was pleased with the result.  The two trucks were quite compatible and I thought that for the very small investment the truck I had scratch built was a very good project.

The first steps in making the Ork Gargant

I have been rounding up the materials necessary to create the torso and feet of the Ork Gargant.  This is going slowly because I have to search for the necessary components.

In the first photo, you can see the two bodies which I will use along with the "shoulder" pieces abd the "feet" and a plastic Easter egg.  The Easter egg is divided from one end to the other so all I had to do was remove the plastic part that allows one half of the egg to be connected to the other.  Also, I took the rounder end of a normal Easter egg and cut it in half to make the "toe" end of the "feet".  The bodies came from a box of battling robots which I purchased in the 1990s.  The bodies are very sturdy because the plastic is very thick.  You can see that I have started working on the yellow and gray body which is round, somewhat like a can, whereas the red and gray body is octagonal.  I have searched for these robots on the internet but have had no luck finding any.  Had I not had these bodies in my collection, I would have found something else to use.  One such item to use as a substitute is the body of a lamp (if it is plastic) and I have seen plastic bird feeders which would make a good substitute.  If you look at the red and gray body, you can see four spikes around the top of the body.  I have removed these spikes from the yellow body.  When I work on the red and gray body, I will remove the spikes as well.

Tools
The tools I have used for this part of the construction are a razor saw to remove the spikes from the top of the body, to remove the plastic rim on one side of the first Easter egg, and to cut the round part of the other Easter egg in half.  I used a file to smooth the parts which I had to cut.

Materials
For this project, I am using a body from a battling robots game (the controls were wired to each robot), some other parts from the battling robots game, and some Easter eggs.

Mega Miniatures now owns the rights to Alpha Forge Minis

I have a number of miniatures - some salvage trucks, Demolition robots, Hydrissian pieces, Mephalian pieces, robots, and some of the ganger miniatures.  I recently decided to try to buy some more robots so I went in search of a place to purchase them on the internet.  I found that Mega Miniatures now owns the molds of the Alpha Forge line and, in fact, has the rules and supplements as free downloads.  Go check them out if you have not already.  I highly recommend the Alpha Forge miniatures and Mega Miniatures as well.

The molds and the rights have been sold by Mega Miniatures, but I am unsure who has them.  Supposedly, someone bought the miniatures to augment his or her game which will eventually be released.

The beginning of an Ork Gargant

I have not posted for a while...I have been remiss.  I want to bash together an Ork Scout Gargant and have been thinking about the pieces necessary to build it.  Understand that this will be a kit bash and not a scratchbuild so that I will not be working much with raw materials, but will instead work with parts from different items which I have acquired through the years.

Inspiration
The inspiration for the scout gargant is from about White Dwarf #112.  It may not be the correct issue, but the one I am remembering had two Imperial scout Titans in it.  I have most of the parts to build the Imperial scouts, so wanted to look for parts to build an Ork Gargant because it had not been done.  Yes, I have seen Gargants built from scratch before, but I wanted to make mine to be of the level of the Scout Titans from years ago.  Clearly, I have been collecting the parts for this project for years (maybe since the late 1980s) and now am undertaking the building.  Unlike previous projects which normally take 15 or 20 minutes for me to complete, I expect that this project will take a number of posts to complete.

Tools
The tools necessary to complete this project will probably run the board for me, meaning that I will most likely be using every tool which is in my toolbox.  Each post will have the tools for that part of the project listed separately.

Materials
I find that this project will be very exciting because I will be using some plastic Easter eggs which I have been saving for years.  Included with the Easter eggs will be a number of other plastic items gathered through the years.  Each post will have materials for that part of the project listed separately.

Updating a Boarboy

Inspiration
I really liked the original idea for the Orks in Rogue Trader.  I thought that the clan idea with each clan having some benefit was really good.  I still paint and convert my Ork miniatures so that I have different clans.  With this urge to convert and paint Orks in such a way and with the newer, larger Orks that Games Workshop is producing these days, I decided to upgrade some of my Ork Boarboyz.

Tools
The tools needed to complete this conversion are a modeling knife, a razor saw, pin vice and drill bits, and a file.

Materials
The materials you will need are the Boarboy legs ( I have used Nobz legs for this conversion), a plastic torso, a plastic Ork head, an Ork right arm with pistol, a grenade arm (I have used a metal grenade arm but the plastic ones will work well also), the business end of an axe arm, pinning wire, super glue, and styrene cement.

Conversion
You will need to flatten the bottom of the torso with a file because the Boarboy legs have a flat surface where you will need to attach the two.  Once accomplished, you will need to drill pinning holes into the torso and legs and pin the two pieces together.  Next, glue the head and right arm to the torso.  You will need to do some work to attach the axe head to the grenade arm.  I pinned an additional piece of plastic between the hand and the axe.  Pin and glue the left arm to the torso and you will be done with the conversion.

Note
When I do a conversion, I keep the parts that I remove for later use.  In this conversion, I had to remove the grenade from the left arm.  In a future conversion, I will use the removed grenade to finish a product.  I also will be using the remaining torso from the Boarboy to make a Boarboy Yoof.

Converting an Ork Assault Commander

Inspiration
Sometimes I have an inspiration to create a certain look with a miniature.  This project was not one of those times.  Instead, I had an idea of creating another project, in this case one of the Scout Titans from White Dwarf Issue 112 (or there abouts), and some of the bits that I will not use for that project suggested a use.  The carapace for the Scout Titans came from a Zoids Gustav model.  Also in the Zoids Gustav model were some small figures, one of them being a robotic lizard.  I decided that I would try to adapt the legs from the lizard to make as Ork Assault Commander that would be unique.

Tools
The tools you will need are a modeling knife, some files, and a razor saw.

Materials
The materials you will need are the robotic lizard body, an Ork torso, an Ork head, Ork arms, and some glue.

The Conversion
Using the razor saw, remove the torso at the hip from the legs.  You may have to carve and file the legs so that they look correct.  Cut the ball plug from the bottom of the torso so that you will have a smooth surface to which you can glue the legs.  Glue the pieces together and let the glue harder.  You are now ready to prime and paint your new Ork Assault Commander.

A Note About the Zoids Gustav Model
I am not sure if the Zoids Gustav Model is still in production or not, so you may have to get one off of the auction sites.  The Gustav is a very nice model which will give you the carapace for the Scout Titan project we will do someday, it gives you the legs for this project, it has some tracked trailers that would have some use, and it has some pieces that could be used in Scifi industrial terrain. You may have trouble acquiring one, but it is probably the most useful model you may ever buy.

Converting a Necromutant from Warzone

Inspiration
It seemed like a cosmic joke.  It seemed that every time I won a lot auction on eBay, some of this miniature were included.  I do not like having a whole mob of the exact same miniature so I had to do something.  After long hesitation, I decided to start carving him and see where the project took me.  This is what I ended up with.

Tools
The tools necessary for this conversion are a modeling knife, files, razor saw, and a pin vice.

          Materials
The materials necessary for this conversion are the Necromutant miniature, some scrap plastic bits, a heavy weapon from Space Rangers, a weapon end of your choosing, some pinning wire, and some glue.

The Conversion
The first thing that you need to do is remove the rifle from the miniature.  You must decide how you want the miniature to look, so you must either leave the right hand as it is cast or remove it and glue it back on.  The miniature on the left has the right hand removed and the right arm cut back while the miniature on the right has the right hand left as cast.  Also notice on the miniature on the right that I have cut the right leg and repositioned it with the use of a slice of leg from a 1/35th scale miniature.
If you notice in the picture of the finished clowns, on the miniature on the left I have left the right hand as cast and on the miniature on the right I have repositioned the right hand.  On the clown miniature on the right I have also repositioned the left arm with the use of a segment of a plastic Goliath arm from the Necromunda range.  For the weapon end I chose to use the plastic chain fist from some early GW Titans.  I have done the same conversions of the two "Trencher" miniatures in the last photo.  The hats are from Tamiya 1/35th scale WWII German soldiers and the weapons were not altered.

Rough Rider Standard Bearer Modification

Inspiration
Since I have been able to acquire enough arms with laspistols and chainswords, I have decided to modify this Rough Rider standard bearer.  I several of these, so I wanted to use some of them to make an assault Rough Rider.

Tools
The tools necessary for this modification are a razor saw, a modelling knife, a file, and a pin vice with appropriately sized bits.

Materials
You will need the Rough Rider standard bearer torso, the Rough Rider legs, the Cadian SGT laspistol arm and chainsword arm, some pinning wire, and some super glue.

The Modification
You will need to drill pinning holes into the torso and the legs so that you can pin them together.  Using a razor saw, you will need to remove the left arm of the standard bearer torso.  Using the file, make sure that the surface of the left shoulder is smooth so that the chainsword arm can be glued on well.  On the right arm, you will need to drill a hole that will accomodate the knob.  Once this is accomplished, you can glue the right arm on.  Attach the legs to the torso.

Rough Rider SGT Modification

Inspiration
Since the new Cadian Command miniatures were released, I wanted to update my Rough Riders.  I am only changing the arms from the older arms to the newer ones.

Tools
The tools necessary for this modification are a modeling knife and a pin vice with appropriately sized bits.

Materials
The materials necessary for this modification are the Rough Rider SGT torso, the Rough Rider legs, the right arm holding a bolt pistol, the left bionic arm with sword, some pinning wire, and some super glue.

The modification
The Rough Rider torso and legs must have pinning holes drilled into them.   Make sure that you get a good fit at the joint.  Since the arms are molded to fit a flat surface and the torso is cast with knobs at the shoulders, you must drill some holes into the arms so that they will fit over the knobs.  Once you have done that, you can glue the arms into place.

Note
In lieu of the original Rough Rider, you can carve some plastic mounted legs into Rough Rider legs and use a Cadian torso and head to make the modification

Squat Tank with Assault Cannon Conversion

Inspiration
The inspiration for a Squat Tank was that I did not think that the Squat trikes did not have enough punch, so I decided to make something that did.  A friend of mine, Mike, gave me one of the Pack Rat vehicles from G I Joe.  I thought that it was an interesting piece, but I had it for years before I finally had an idea.  The following is the conversion I made from the Rat Pack vehicle.

Tools
The tools you will need are a modeling knife, a razor saw, a rotary tool, and a file or files.

Materials
The materials you will need are the Rat Pack vehicle, the chair piece from Robotix, some plastic card, glue, a cupola from a Games Workshop 40k tank (or something similar), an assault cannon bit, a GW Dwarf miniature, an SM tank commander bit, and some of the icons from GW Dwarves.

 The Conversion
the photo at the left shows all of the pieces which are required.  As you can see, the Rat Pack vehicle was a small tracked rocket launcher system.  I did not need the rockets so I did not picture them.  You will however need the small tower that is part of the vehicle.  The Robotix seat piece is the black item at the top.  The remainder are bits from 40k tanks and the Dwarf bits needed to make the tank commander.
Take the Rat Pack tower piece and remove the bottom two rings...these will be used to connect the turret to the tank bottom.  Next, on the tank bottom, you will need to cut or file down the two small pieces that stick up on the left (when viewed from the front or top) so that the turret can turn freely.
Cut the seat part from the Robotix piece that is shown...this is the only part you will use from the Robotix piece.  Build up the seat piece with plastic card until you have the look of the turret on the left.  Drill a hole in the front of the turret, as shown, to insert the Assault Cannon bit.  As you can see from the photo, I have added a hammer striking anvil bit to the front of the turret.  Glue the cupola piece together and attach to the turret.  You may need to file down the ring at the bottom of the cupola so that the cupola can sit flush on the turret.
Take the Dwarf torso which you have chosen and scrape out the back so that the torso can be glued to the SM tank commanders legs.  I did it with a rotary tool, but it can be done with a modelling knife.  When the torso fits on the legs well, glue the two pieces together.  Make modification to the Dwarf commander by adding arms from the plastic Dwarf miniatures from Games Workshop and you are finished.  All that is remaining is for you to paint your Squat tank.

Grand Master of the Order of the Fiery Heart conversion

Inspiration
I had been collecting and painting miniatures since around 1970.  I enjoyed the miniatures a great deal, but my collection was somewhat aimless.  When I saw a miniature that I liked, I bought it without thought as to where it might fit in my collection.  My habits changed greatly with the publication of Warhammer Armies in 1988.  There was a lot of useful information in the book and the visual aspects of it increased my hopes of having some really nice miniatures.  One of the first images that really made me think of the possibilities of conversion was the painting on page 55 in the Empire section.  I really liked the helmet of the Grand Master of the Order of the Fiery Heart, so I decided to try to make a conversion.  I am updating my conversion to make use of some of the newer plastic bits that were available.  I had already reconverted my original Grand Master by using a Bretonnian Knight head from the box of plastic knights which was previously available.  It really does improve the miniature.

Tools
The tools necessary to make the conversion are a modeling knife, a razor saw, some sand paper, a pin vice and drill bits, files, and a razor saw.

Materials
The materials you will need for this conversion are a Knight torso, a Rampant Lion Knight Head, some pinning wire, either some small aluminum tubing and some plastic card or the sun shield from Marauder, and some glue (the type of glue needed depends on the bits which you are using for your conversion.


The conversion

First, remove the lion crest and the plug on the underside of the head cloth from the Knight head.  Second, remove the head from the Knight from the torso.  Using the modeling knife, carve the bottom of the Knight helmet to fit the torso.  Drill pinning holes into the helmet and the torso and pin the head to the torso.  Cut your new crest to fit the top of the helmet and glue on.

                                              Note

If you absolutely can not acquire some of the materials necessary to make the conversion, you can check with me.  I can check for availability from my collection.  You would be far better off if you can acquire the parts from an acquaintance, from eBay, or from one of the sites such as TMP or Bartertown.  Also, the right arm which I used for my original conversion was removed from the Citadel mounted Emperor miniature which was available in the late 1980s and 90s.

Making a Squat sniper

Inspiration
In 2008, I was looking at some auctions on eBay and I noticed an auction for "Squat Rangers".  I looked at the auction and noticed that the seller had taken some of the Dwarf miniatures from Battle for Skull Pass and turned them into Squats.  I tried to bid, but missed out, so I decided to make my own.

Tools
The tools you will need are a razor saw, a modelling knife, and a pin vice and drill bits.

Materials
The materials you will need are a Dwarf Thunderer miniature from Battle for Skull Pass, an Imperial Guard plastic helmet, an SM scope, and a Kroot rifle.

The Conversion

You will have to carefully carve away the helmet which the miniature has and shape the head to accept the Imperial Guard helmet.  Once that is accomplished, you will need to remove the gun which the Thunderer is cast with and work on the area where the Kroot rifle will be positioned.  The last thing is to cut down the Kroot rifle and glue it into place.

Note
I see a lot of gamers lamenting the fact that Citadel miniatures no longer produces Squat miniatures on the blogs and collectors sites.  There are still Dwarf miniatures being made, so you can fill the vacuum  by converting Dwarf miniatures

Adding a skirt to a Citadel Knights Panther

I felt that the mounted knights which Citadel Miniatures manufactured in the late 1980s looked a little flat after assembly.  After doing some research, I found in the Osprey Elite Series "Knights at Tournament" book that there were instances when the knights wore a surcoat underneath their armor that extended below the torso.  I decided to try to copy the effect to make the knight look better.

The tools you will need are compass or circle template, scribe, safety glasses, a cutting board, a file, old pair of scissors, and modeling knife.  I also used a burnisher but failed to include it in the picture.  The materials you will need are the miniature, some thin metal sheet (I will use thin copper sheet, but heavy aluminum or some other thin metal sheet will suffice), pinning wire, and some adhesive.  Please remember to do this safely.

Using the circular template and scribe, draw a circle in the thin metal sheet.  Cut the disc out of the metal sheet using the old pair of scissors and then cut out a pie-shaped segment out of the disc.  Once the pie-shaped segment is removed, shape the skirt onto the legs of the knight miniature.  You will have to remove the back part of the saddle that is cast on the legs.

 Assemble the horse and put your materials which you will use on the cutting board.  You should have a horse (the "Big Horse", which is no longer produced, is the best horse for this process), the torso and legs of the knight miniature, and the skirt.

Shape the skirt to the legs.  I used a burnisher to thin parts of the skirt.  Remember, the skirt is supposed to represent cloth.  Glue the skirt onto the lets.  File or carve the skirt so that it fits on the legs properly.

Place the legs on the horse and shape it further.  Make sure that the torso still fits well on the legs.  You may need to file the hole in the skirt so that it does not interfere with the torso fit on the legs.

Glue the torso onto the legs.  Make sure that there is no gap between the torso and the skirt.  If there is, fill it in with epoxy putty or something similar.  Continue to work on the look of the skirt by putting the miniature on the horse.

This is the miniature after I started painting it.  This really adds some nice character to your Empire Knightly Orders.

Swapping the head on a miniature

The first conversion  we will do is most likely the easiest.  As an example, we will take a Citadel Knights Panther miniature from the 1980s and replace it with a new plastic head from the Empire Knightly Orders box.

 The tools we will need are a razor saw, a pin vice with appropriate sized bits, and a modelling knife,  The materials we will use are the knight miniature, the plastic knight head, wire for pinning, and superglue or some other appropriate adhesive.






The first thing to do is to place a wire in the bottom of the torso of the Knights Panther miniature so that we can hold the miniature while we are working on it.  The next step is to remove the top or crest of the knight with a razor saw.

 Once that is accomplished, use the pin vice to drill down through the head of the knight.  Be careful not to drill into the torso of the miniature.






Using a modeling knife, remove the remainder of the head. Using a small bit in the pin vice, drill a pinning hole into the torso in the neck area.








Next, you will want to drill a pinning hole up through the neck area of the plastic head.  Pin the two parts together and glue the head into the torso.










I hope that this post will be helpful.

The name of the blog

Just a short message about the name of this blog.  I collect, convert, and paint fantasy and science fiction war gaming miniatures.  I tried to have a title that had science fiction and fantasy miniatures, but all of the titles that I tried were already taken.  I wanted to indicate that the blog was about science fiction and fantasy miniatures so I tried several titles and in the end, all I could come up with was "otherworld".  The "miniatures" part will be fairly clear.  The reason I chose "lab" was that I will be doing some conversions so the word seemed to fit.  There is probably a more apropos title that is available, but I could not find it.

Materials
Materials are things that you use in the process of basing and painting your miniatures. 

The miniatures themselves are a type of material.  There are a great number of manufacturers of miniatures and a large number of themes.  We will mainly be working on fantasy and science fiction miniatures, but the skills that you use in these projects will be applicable to most other miniatures in your collection.

Bases are another type of material.  You may have bought some miniatures with slotta bases.  Some of your miniatures are cast with integral, or cast on, bases.  Some of your miniatures may actually be well cast and have pins cast on the bottom of the miniature to glue to a base.  In order to get a standard base, I cut off the tabs on the slotta bases and file off the integral bases and replace them with an appropriately sized plastic disc or square.  Of course if the miniature is not cast with pins on the bottom, I have to use my pin vice to make holes in which I can glue my pins.

I use epoxy putty to put texture on many or my bases or do add detail to a miniature.  You can get epoxy putty from a variety of stores.  It normally comes in a two-part roll or strip that must be blended to a uniform color and cures over various periods of time.

On some of my bases, I use door screening material to easily give detail to the base.

You probably throw out good types of plastic weekly.  You can get good plastic from cookie trays (the clear thing that holds the cookies), fast food containers, and some blister or clam type containers of things that you purchase.  If you check the recycle emblem on the bottom or back of the container, tray, etc., and there is a 5 or a 6 in the triangle, then the plastic can be glued using Testors glue or something similar.

You also throw out good types of styrofoam every week.  Check the styrofoam that goes into your garbage before you throw it out.

A primer, a coating of paint that is porous, is put on the miniature on order for paint to adhere to it.  I normally use black primer, but it just comes down to preference.

There are many sorts of paints available.  Many of you probably buy the expensive hobby paints that are available in hobby stores or on line.  I have used some of them and I believe that they are a waste of money.  The difference between the results you can achieve with hobby paints and acrylic craft paints is probably non-existant.  I use regular craft paints and am quite satisfied with the results.

Inks are also a useful type of material.  You can buy inks at hobby stores.

Gesso, an artist medium, can also be used to create texture on bases.

Another helpful item is wire for pinning.  You can purchase brass wire in a variety of guages for pinning at most hobby stores.  I prefer to use the wire from plastic coated paper clips.  The steel is a little bit sturdier than the brass and it too comes in a variety of guages.

Basic Tools
Following is a selection of tools that are necessary to complete the projects that will be shown.

Safety glasses are an important tool that you should use when working on miniatures. It is very important that you take safety precautions when doing this type of work.　

There are many different types of modeling knife and a large variety of blades. It is best to use a modeling knife that has replaceable blades. Generally I use the modeling knife for lighter cutting, as the blades are not designed for heavier cutting. Make sure to have a supply of blades in order to keep the cutting edge sharp.

Clippers are used for a variety of tasks such as removing plastic parts from sprues to cutting sheet metal, plastic and wire.This is the most useful tool that you will have and you will probably use it on every project that you undertake.

Needle files come in all sorts of shapes and sizes. You can use them for a variety of tasks such as removing mold lines from metal or plastic miniatures, smoothing the material you are working with, or eliminating burs from metal or plastic. It is recommended that you have a variety of shapes for filing.

The pin vice is a small hand held vice that is designed to hold drill bits. Some pin vices come with a set chuck size and can only accommodate a small range of the drill bits while others come with different sized chucks which each can accommodate a small range of drill bits. The drill bits come in a variety of sizes and great care must be taken in using them, as they are quite fragile.

Pliers come in a variety of sizes and shapes. You will probably use different types of pliers in your projects.
You can find modeling saws in hobby stores or Do-it-yourself stores. It is very important to have a variety of blades, but the blades must be fine or very fine.

A razor saw is similar to a backsaw but the blade is very fine. Usually, there is a handle that the blade fits into. Razor saws can be bought in DIY stores, hobby stores, and department stores.A modeling saw is similar to a coping saw but the blade is very fine.

Tweezers are very important in working with miniatures. They come in a variety of types and sizes.

Files are larger versions of needle files. They come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and coarsenesses.
Sandpaper is a heavy paper coated on one side with coarse material. The grit of sandpaper is the fineness of the coarse material. You will most likely use a variety of grits of sandpaper.

A craft knife is a utility knife used to cut various materials. In many ways, a craft knife is much like a modeling knife, only bigger.

Usually metal rulers are made of stainless steel.A metal ruler is quite simply a ruler that is made of metal. You can buy metal rulers at hobby stores, DIY stores, and possibly get one free as an advertisement. The metal ruler that I use the most was a free advertisement from a printing company.

Sculpting tools are tools that you can use to sculpt epoxy putty and other materials. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. You can purchase them at DIY stores and hobby stores.

Intro to the Otherworld Miniatures Lab

If you collect fantasy and scifi miniatures then you are at the right place.  On this blog, we will discuss tools of the trade, materials used, and ways to make improvements to the miniatures we have (or hope to get).  I hope that you will like the subjects covered here and will visit often.