MV – The arrival of Bolt Action: Third Edition has seen a flurry of hobby activity at Warlord HQ – and at our overseas outposts! Part of the US Trade Sales Team, Isaac Paul has been cooking up a force of Romanians for the new edition. Now, you might be wondering how he’s done this, since we don’t actually make any Romanians – tell all, Isaac!
IP – With the arrival of the new edition, I decided it was the perfect time to start a new force. I fancied doing one of the ‘further nations’, and being a first generation American with my family immigrating to the States in the ‘80s from Romania, there was an obvious choice! While I knew the basics of Romanian participation in WWII, I was not too familiar with the deeper history of my motherland during the war, so it was time to do a bit of research.
A Bit of History
What happened in Romania from 1939 to 1945 is fascinating and oftentimes tragic. Caught between something of a rock and a hard place geographically and politically, Romanian forces made a significant and oft-underappreciated contribution to the Axis effort on the Eastern Front, paying a heavy price for their involvement.
The end of WWI brought new territories into Romania’s possession, such as the long sought after Transylvania. Fighting as part of the Allies during the Great War reinforced Romania’s connection with France and the UK, which would remain close until 1940. During the late 1930s, however, Romania would be approached by Germany for mutual economic gain, and the Soviet Union began to loom.
Romanian King Carol II sought to reinforce Romania’s friendship with the Third Reich as France fell in 1940. Around this time, the Soviets would press their territorial claims to Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, which Romania begrudgingly surrendered.
General Ion Antonescu would be appointed to the position of Prime Minister by the King. In response, Antonescu would lead a successful coup against Carol II in 1940 with the fascist Iron Guard faction. Pro-German relations would be bolstered even further under Antonescu, culminating in Romania becoming the second largest Axis army to take part in Operation Barbarossa. A desire to take back Romanian land and to secure their long-term security were the driving factors for Romania’s commitment to the Axis in this period.
Parts of the Romanian Third and Fourth Armies were defeated at Stalingrad with the rest of Army Group B when the Soviet Operation Uranus encircled the Axis forces. With the turn of fortune on the Eastern Front, Romanian forces would retreat within their own borders by 1944, and King Michael I, son of Carol II would lead a yet another coup against Antonescu. With his success, Michael would change his country’s allegiance to the Allies. Romania would expel German troops from her borders and would march on the Third Reich with the Red Army. After the war, Romania would remain a communist state until revolution in 1989.
Building the Infantry
For this project, I decided to focus on the German-trained Third Army that accompanied the Wehrmacht eastward during Barbarossa. I sat down with the army list, and planned out a force primarily themed for 1941-1943, equipped with a cool mixture of French spoils, Italian arms, and German support. The backbone of my Third Army force would be the Rifle Platoon below:
With all the preparation done, it was on to the fun bit – building and painting! As Warlord don’t make any Romanian models, I had to get creative, while also sticking to my goal of getting the force done quickly and simply. To this end, I dived into my pile of sprues!
Using a mixture of German, French, Soviet, and Italian plastic kits, I came up with this simple formula to create my infantry:
Italian/Soviet Body + German Head + Italian/French/German Gear + Italian/French/German Weapons = Isaac’s Romanian Infantryman!
To represent the Md.1941 double-peaked caps used by the Romanians, I used the standard
assortment of field caps available in all German infantry kits, making sure to shave off the eagles on the crown of each cap. The Italian Blackshirt and Soviet Infantry bodies were primarily chosen for the puttee leg wraps that were iconic to the Romanian uniform. I also utilised many of the Soviet bodies with the greatcoats or bedrolls worn across the chest, as they were a common sight in the Romanian army.
To represent the French influence on the Romanian military, I gave some of my models a mixture of MAS 36 carbines, Lebel M1907/15 rifles, and Chatellerault FM 24/29 LMGs from the French Infantry sprues, as well as the backpacks which I spread around liberally.
The majority of the weapons in my squads are German Kar 98Ks and Italian M91/41 rifles. The few SMGs available to the Romanians are represented by MP 40s, and one NCO with an Italian Beretta SMG. I am sure the wide variety of multinational armaments would have been a logistical nightmare for the supply trains! To further represent this mix of equipment, I gave the models German bread bags, a mix of Italian and German canteens, and a variety of gas mask bags from across my bits box.
Weapons Teams & HQ
I combined the scope of the Mosin-Nagant sniper rifle from the Soviet weapons sprue with a German Mauser to represent the scoped Vz.24 rifle for my Sniper team!
I used Winter German bodies for my Platoon Commander team to help them stand out amongst the rest of the force – it seems likely that the officer would make sure he had a warm coat!
I added a small piece of melted and stretched sprue to the Italian MG assistant backpack to create a radio for my Forward Observer team.
I combined the light mortar from the Afrika Korps sprue with Soviet and Italian bodies to make this weapons team.
I mixed German Pioneer components with US Ranger bazooka parts to create my Panzerschreck team.
Painting the Force
My mission is to always paint armies as quickly as I can, and this project is no different! I used a black primer with a white ‘zenithal’ spray as my basecoat, followed by a coat of thinned khaki on the uniforms through my airbrush. From there, I used plenty of Speedpaints and washes to quickly lay down the rest of the base colours, before a few quick highlights and a gentle wash of diluted Soft Tone to finish the model off.
Next Steps
There are still a few bits I want to add to my Rifle Platoon – most notably a couple of trucks to transport them. I also plan on making a few loose Panzerfausts with straps that I can freely pop onto infantry models, giving me the freedom to equip whichever units I want, and a storage crate for them that can sit in one of the trucks!
First, though, I’m going to tackle my next platoon and give my Romanians some armoured support! Stay tuned for the next article in this series where I’ll go through my armour!
MV – Inspired by Isaac’s kitbashing prowess? Get to the website and stock up on all the sprues you’ll need!
