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Description
Merry Christmas everybody!

As usual around this time of year, this year's greeting card for my reenactment group, "Traditia Militara" .

This year we had two major commemorations - 100 years since the fierce battles of Mărăști , Mărășești and Oituz , from July to September 1917 as well as 140 years from the Siege of Plevna during the Romanian War of Independence (known to the world at large as the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 ), particularly the Third Battle on the 11th of September 1877, in which the Romanian 4th division stormed the Grivitsa redoubt.

Thus, the soldier on the left is an infantryman from the 4th Line Infantry regiment during the War of 1877, wearing winter clothing including greatcoat and haversack and armed with the M1867 Russian Krnka rifle . The main rifle of the Romanian Army at the time was the M1868 Romanian Peabody , but we also bought a number of Krnkas during the pre-war mobilisation, when a lot of rifles were needed quickly.

By contrast, the soldier of the right is an infantryman from the same regiment, now known as the 21st Infantry regiment "Ilfov", as he would have appeared in 1917.
Since the Romanian army had been shattered in 1916 and rebuilt anew with French and other Allied support, he is wearing a lot of foreign equipment when compared to the soldier of 1916 - for example, his rifle is a French Berthier Fusil Mle 1907/15 , his helmet is a M15 "Casque Adrian", his rucksack, cartridge pouches and entrenching tool are captured K.u.K., his shelter half is also French, etc. This is why, although originally the soldier had the helmet on his head , in the end I decided to have him wear the M1916 " capelă" Field Cap instead, because else he would have looked too similar to a French "poilu" and that would have caused undue confusion.

In terms of theme and composition, the card is inspired by this collection of Austro-Hungarian period greeting cards from the K.u.K. Infanterien Regiment Nr.99 "König der Hellenen" (yeah, the same regiment as the guy I drew here ).

LATER EDIT: I just realised that, given the 40 year gap between the two soldiers, the one on the left can well be the grandfather of the one on the right...

Description
Merry Christmas everybody!

As usual around this time of year, this year's greeting card for my reenactment group, "Traditia Militara" .

This year we had two major commemorations - 100 years since the fierce battles of Mărăști , Mărășești and Oituz , from July to September 1917 as well as 140 years from the Siege of Plevna during the Romanian War of Independence (known to the world at large as the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78 ), particularly the Third Battle on the 11th of September 1877, in which the Romanian 4th division stormed the Grivitsa redoubt.

Thus, the soldier on the left is an infantryman from the 4th Line Infantry regiment during the War of 1877, wearing winter clothing including greatcoat and haversack and armed with the M1867 Russian Krnka rifle . The main rifle of the Romanian Army at the time was the M1868 Romanian Peabody , but we also bought a number of Krnkas during the pre-war mobilisation, when a lot of rifles were needed quickly.

By contrast, the soldier of the right is an infantryman from the same regiment, now known as the 21st Infantry regiment "Ilfov", as he would have appeared in 1917.
Since the Romanian army had been shattered in 1916 and rebuilt anew with French and other Allied support, he is wearing a lot of foreign equipment when compared to the soldier of 1916 - for example, his rifle is a French Berthier Fusil Mle 1907/15 , his helmet is a M15 "Casque Adrian", his rucksack, cartridge pouches and entrenching tool are captured K.u.K., his shelter half is also French, etc. This is why, although originally the soldier had the helmet on his head , in the end I decided to have him wear the M1916 " capelă" Field Cap instead, because else he would have looked too similar to a French "poilu" and that would have caused undue confusion.

In terms of theme and composition, the card is inspired by this collection of Austro-Hungarian period greeting cards from the K.u.K. Infanterien Regiment Nr.99 "König der Hellenen" (yeah, the same regiment as the guy I drew here ).

LATER EDIT: I just realised that, given the 40 year gap between the two soldiers, the one on the left can well be the grandfather of the one on the right...