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Author Topic: a romanian infantry platoon project  (Read 2636 times)

Offline cahrn

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a romanian infantry platoon project
« on: January 09, 2020, 06:55:37 AM »
Over the holidays I wrapped up the last modeling project I had been working on and didn't have anything urgent that I needed to begin. After painting a few random models here and there I decided I was ready to start something a bit larger in scope. The two somewhat big projects I've been kicking around for a while are a platoon of Romanian infantry for WWII gaming and an AWI Continental force. For both projects I have a portion of the model's I'll need, but since I still want to avoid painting AWI uniforms I decided to start working on my long neglected Romanians at the start of the new year. About two years ago I picked up a platoon of Great Escape Games Romanian infantry in summer dress from the half off bin at my LGS. At the time I wanted to use them as an opponent for my Soviet Naval Brigade force I was planning on making (and eventually completed in the spring of 2019). For half off I couldn't resist, even if they were destined to sit in a drawer in my closet for a while. While I'm on the subject of the miniatures I'd like to mention my impressions thus far with the Great Escape Games stuff. When I unboxed them I was happy to see there were no bent or broken gun barrels, however the overall quality of the casting seemed to be low. These are the first miniatures in my collection from Great Escape Games so I'm not sure if my complaints are common or a more isolated occurrence. About half of the pack had really unfortunate mold lines right down the center of the model's face. Furthermore, many models also had extensive mold lines on their weapons, which I found to be annoying to remove while still maintaining the sight apertures and various other weapon details. I also noticed some mold slip on a few models. The point of this isn't to bash Great Escape Games, rather to report on my experience putting together this project.

At any rate, over the course of two days I managed to scrape and file the 24 models in the pack to an acceptable state. As I've continued working on the project I've noticed little bits here and there that need additional cleaning, which I've gone ahead and dealt with. Following the cleaning phase I gave each miniature a simple base treatment with some sand and small stones. Everything got primed as usual and received a zenithal highlight of grey, then white acrylic ink. These models are the first that I've used acrylic ink for a zenithal highlight, which was something I wanted to try. Overall I liked the effect it produced, though I think most of the gradient ended up getting covered once I started layering wash and highlights on the basecoat. I decided to go through and do the base skin tone on every model in the pack in one fell swoop as I often leave skin to the end of a project and take a lazy or poor approach with it. I also basecoated all of the helmets for some reason... ??? Below is a shot of the whole pack of miniatures after priming, skin and helmet basecoating, and some work done to the prototype models.



For now I plan on working on the models in batches of four or five, with the first batch being 'prototype' models. I'm experimenting a bit with color choices on the first batch to find what I like and what works best. I'm not a rivet counter by any means, and I've seen a tremendous variety in colors that Romanian webbing and kit appeared in so I'll definitely be varying that throughout the project. The two prototype models pictured below still need to have their gaiters painted and their helmets highlighted. I'll also probably pick out a few buckles with a gunmetal.



Once I finish with the 24 Great Escape Games miniatures I already have I plan to round out the force with models from Tsuba Miniatures range. Ultimately I'm building a force that I can field in a game of Chain of Command with this list: http://toofatlardies.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Romania-1941-Army-List.pdf I'd like to finish painting the Great Escape Games stuff by the end of the month, so hopefully posting this keeps me honest and keeps my progress on a reasonable timetable!

Offline ARKOUDAKI

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #1 on: January 09, 2020, 11:10:06 AM »
Those look good! I have the Tsuba Minis Romanians and they look good, so I am looking forward to seeing how they compare with Great Escape Games ones you have. So get busy and post some pics!  ;D

Online Shahbahraz

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #2 on: January 09, 2020, 01:09:07 PM »
I reckon those look very good. I would be tempted to acquire a few, but I have so many platoons already in the panting queue.

Like you I have tried a Zenithal method (on my Soviets), but I am still unsure whether it really worked. (I did it slightly differently, by laying down a rough base colour over black using the airbrush, then a top down highlight colour with the airbrush.) You can see it here:



Judging from your pictures you are doing much more work on the base uniform colours, and so the Zenithal effect will be much less apparent. I'm looking forward to seeing how these go. May I ask what colours you are using for the basic uniform?
Wargaming since the dark ages...

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Offline frank xerox

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #3 on: January 09, 2020, 03:02:43 PM »
Good to see the Rumanians getting some love - I've got nearly a company's worth in 20mm, painted Vallejo English uniform with some "bleached" tunics ( I forget the colour).
They're a nice different, underdog of an army and if yours turn out like your Russians they'll be a fine sight on the tabletop

Offline cahrn

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #4 on: January 09, 2020, 05:45:23 PM »
Like you I have tried a Zenithal method (on my Soviets), but I am still unsure whether it really worked. (I did it slightly differently, by laying down a rough base colour over black using the airbrush, then a top down highlight colour with the airbrush.)

Judging from your pictures you are doing much more work on the base uniform colours, and so the Zenithal effect will be much less apparent. I'm looking forward to seeing how these go. May I ask what colours you are using for the basic uniform?

I think that much of a zenithal undercoat gets covered and isn't really visible once the basecoat gets applied. My understanding is that it shows on the finished product more if the model is painted with glazes and washes, which is not something I'm doing on these miniatures. I'd like to try painting that way a bit more, but I'll try it later as I tend to like to keep things the same on a given project. I used Vallejo Model Color German Camouflage Medium Brown (70.826) for the uniform basecoat. Then I applied some Army Painter Strong Tone wash to the whole area. After the wash I went back in with the original color to clean up. I highlighted using the same VMC German Camouflage Medium Brown and AK Interactive US Filed Drab (3075) lightened as desired with AK Interactive Ivory (3028). I have tried to highlight these models a bit brighter since I often find that I don't push my highlight values high enough.

Those look good! I have the Tsuba Minis Romanians and they look good, so I am looking forward to seeing how they compare with Great Escape Games ones you have. So get busy and post some pics!  ;D

Thanks, glad to hear that the Tsuba Miniatures are nice. Everything I've heard about them has been positive, so I'm looking forward to getting to the point where I can switch gears and work on them!

Offline cahrn

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2020, 06:42:27 AM »
Here's a bit of progress over the last few days. I'm mostly done with the pictured models. Getting them to this stage has given me a pretty good feel for how I'll go about the rest. I may go back in and add a bit of varied flock to the bases, but otherwise I think these will be pretty much indicative of a finished product for this project.


Offline moiterei_1984

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #6 on: January 15, 2020, 09:59:18 AM »
They look very good indeed! Nice to see one of the minor axis powers.

Offline Olofeus

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #7 on: January 15, 2020, 10:08:00 AM »
Lovely painting and nice miniatures. Can't wait to see more.

Offline Helen

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #8 on: January 15, 2020, 11:30:00 AM »
Lovely work on the Romanians. Great Escape Game Romanians  look good in those poses.

Best wishes,
Helen
Love many things, for therein lies the true strength, and whosoever loves much performs much, and can accomplish much, and what is done in love is done well (V van Gogh)

Online Shahbahraz

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #9 on: January 15, 2020, 07:50:14 PM »
Seconded. I reckon those look excellent.

Offline cahrn

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #10 on: January 16, 2020, 01:56:14 AM »
I'm glad some of you are enjoying how they've turned out so far. I'm currently working on doing the highlights on the next batch of models, so I hope to have something new to share in a day or two.

Good to see the Rumanians getting some love

They look very good indeed! Nice to see one of the minor axis powers.

Indeed. I have quite a lot of Germans but I'm enjoying the Romanians from a modeling and painting standpoint so far. It's nice to do something different with an axis power.

Offline cahrn

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #11 on: April 06, 2020, 06:46:25 PM »
After quite a long while I've finished the 24 miniatures that came in the Great Escape Games platoon pack. Somewhere in between starting and finishing everything I got a bit distracted building a lot of terrain and painting some fantasy miniatures. I eventually had to force myself to circle back and rush to get these models finished. Ultimately they ended up being a bit of a speed paint at roughly 20-30 minutes per model. I have plenty of gripes with them but at least they're done and I can move on with something new now. The completed miniatures are pictured below, though it seems the lighting in the photos isn't all that great. At some point this will grow into a playable force for Chain of Command, but for now they're just some models I can check off the backlog.





« Last Edit: April 06, 2020, 06:48:53 PM by cahrn »

Offline commissarmoody

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #12 on: April 06, 2020, 11:29:53 PM »
Well at least they are finished, and look just fine to me.  lol
Cool thing about your Romanians, is that they can play both sides of the war 2. Will you be adding any support units? Vehicles, mortars and the like.
"Peace" is that brief, glorious moment in history when everybody stands around reloading.

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Offline cahrn

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #13 on: April 07, 2020, 02:28:39 AM »
Well at least they are finished, and look just fine to me.  lol
Cool thing about your Romanians, is that they can play both sides of the war 2. Will you be adding any support units? Vehicles, mortars and the like.

Thanks. I'd like to add to them over time and bulk them out for operations on the Eastern Front during Operation Barbarossa or the Siege of Sevastapol. I certainly need to add more infantry but I'll probably pick up some towed guns and support weapons. Adding vehicles might be fun but right now I don't know what I would model beyond some transports and tows. I don't know the exact TO&E for a Romanian infantry platoon during this part of the war so my ultimate goal will be to create something plausible.

Offline commissarmoody

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Re: a romanian infantry platoon project
« Reply #14 on: April 07, 2020, 05:46:15 AM »
I believe for the early/mid war time frame. They had R1, R2 and renoult-35 tanks. So nothing to do a tank vs tank game, but could be used as a support option.
Of course as time went if they got more Cezch, German and ex Soviet tanks. Along with modifying their older lighter tanks into tank-hunters useing captured Soviet guns.
https://books.google.com/books?id=z02bCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA26&lpg=PA26&dq=Romanian+army+R+1&source=bl&ots=VVdCBgBJnX&sig=ACfU3U11kWJa7IO46SwwtlcUeD0mpkanfQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwillv7dy9XoAhWOvJ4KHYCYDpkQ6AEwFHoECAQQAQ#v=onepage&q=Romanian%20army%20R%201&f=false