"Rumanian Destroyers WWII" Topic

I have the 2 Mărăşti class destroyers to paint and I must confess that colors for the camouflage scheme and the deck are a complete mystery to me. Indeed, the camouflage pattern itself is also. I would guess that they were getting their paint from either the Germans or the Italians or quite likely from both. Anyone have any helpful observations, advice, etc.? Thanks!!

According to Wikipedia, they were built in Italy in 1916 for Rumania, and served in both the Great War and WWII.
If you wanted a Great War paint scheme, I would ASSUME that they used the Italian camo scheme.

However, since you posted in WWII…

BTW, why do you assume there was no native Rumanian paint industry? Just to complicate things.

My copy of Jane's Fighting Ships of World War II has a 1932 photo of one of the two destroyers. The ship is largely a light gray, with a dark line just above the waterline (traditionally a red in other navies, I think). The ship has three funnels, each with a dark line around the top. The third funnel has two lines around it, which makes me think this may be some sort of a designator, so you can tell the ships apart.

There are also 1944 photos of a minelayer and a gunboat. These look like they started in the same light gray, but now have three different shades of darker triangles on them, creating a sort of dazzle camouflage.

FWIW, Janes says the ships were ordered by Rumania in 1913, tanke over by Italy in 1915, and repurchased by Rumania in 1920. So any action they saw in WWI would have been while flying the Italian flag.

Grelber

Maybe I'm praying that there wasn't a native paint industry, just to simplify things! And yes, I am interested in just WWII camouflage and deck colors

The ships were painted in a very distinctive scheme that was a combination of dazzle and Italian ideas, Each ship had a specific id built into the scheme. Decks were originally red brown but overpainted to grey. Because they operated in a zone where Italian aircraft patrolled, they carried the red and white barber stripes on the upper deck at the bow. After being taken over by the ummmm….friendly…. Soviets…the decks reverted to red brown, but the one illustration I have seen would seem to show that they did not have the camouflage painted out for some time.
The colours used in the schemes were a series of greys, with black and dark green.
The ships of the Romanian Navy will be part of one of my upcoming camouflage books in the HIDING IN THE OPEN series.

By chance what scale are these? 1/2400? If so where did you buy them?