Jutland in Miniature...

 ... in more ways than one.

I finished The Sleepwalkers and am now waiting on a copy of The Gardeners of Salonika, the latter chosen because Serbia is a huge part of the former. Looking forward to reading it.

Today's achievement, minor though it is, is basing my half-strength Jutland battleship squadrons. This was necessary since time left in a car in Florida has warped several of the bases and models. The warping is unfortunately retained on the new bases, but mostly not too obvious:

I'm not positive about using plastic glue on paper-and-card bases. The glue doesn't stay stuck, or maybe that's because of the flexible bases "popping" away too easily. Maybe sticky-tack would work? I do like the ease of labeling. Clear labels go on nicely. I had to replace a couple misspelled German names, but I learned a little history by looking up a few of the more curious ones, like Prinzregent Luitpold, who turns out to be the guy who imprisoned Mad King Ludwig.

A mini Grand Review.

I've slightly modified the Junior General rules to account for
differing battlecruisers. The German ones have the same hitpoints
as a battleship, but less firepower; the British ones have the same
firepower as a battleship, but fewer hit points.

In other news, I had twenty 54mm Apollo astronauts 3d printed. Depending on when I use them, I have between four and sixteen days to prep them for painting (three different space-program-related events coming up). This will require undercoating, basing, possibly basecoating, and finding enough paint and brushes. The figures are black, and all I have at present for basecoating is Wraithbone spray, a sort of creamy-white. I'll experiment on Monday. In the past, I've used grey undercoat and a heavy drybrush of white to start.

Other crafts/activities that can be used sometime in the next month include the usual coloring sheets, cut-and-stick activities, make-your-own astronaut helmets, "stomp rockets" and Kerbal Space Program, which I've managed to make work on a presentation laptop at work. Project it onto a screen and I can either recreate an actual mission (surprisingly difficult even with an autopilot add-on), or have the kids instruct me how to build a rocket. ("Oh, it crashed. What do we need to add? Yes, a parachute sounds like a good idea.")

I also have something more specifically military - a 99-year-old (!) WWII veteran who rode a glider across the Rhine and also fought at the Bulge. I'm working up an interview and presentation that we plan to have both live and streaming to several other branches next month. So I'm idly messing with paper paratroopers and trying to talk downtown into getting a temporary movie license so I can drop in the Pegasus Bridge scene from The Longest Day.

So that's what I've been up to when I'm not posting...