Romanian Minefield Marker

[Philippe]

At CMMODS in the CMBB section.

Pericolul Mina (Danger Mines) is the anti-personnel mine marker.

The series continues, but Magyar and Polish are not going to be easy.

[Count D'Ten]

The only problem with your series that I see, is that the lettering is so, well, graphic designerish. I suppose a stencil font wouldn't make much sense either. It's just that the sign itself is so well beaten up, that the snappy calligraphy seems out of place. Maybe a Balkan veteran will have an opinion. Other the other hand, good work, and it it will be a mode well appreciated

[NameUsedBefore]

It probably doesn't look as snappy when viewed from a greater distance (I am assuming this).

[Philippe]

I think you're right, and that was why I had decided to go with those fonts. If they look different to me after I've lived with them a while I'll change them. The only real way to test one of these things is to stumble on one of them when you aren't thinking about it and discovering that your first reaction was yecchh! the lettering on that sign is much too elegant.

By the way, the sign on the right is viewed from ten meters away or less. The sign on the left is in the same lettering, looks much less elegant, and is viewed from thirty or forty meters away.

[Alexei]

Are you Romanian Philippe? A Romanian friend of mine told me that the correct writing should rather be "Pericol de Mine" (he says that pericolul means " *the* danger " and is therefore not adequate here). Or even better: "ATENTIE MINE" (with a sort of comma under the second "T").

[Philippe]

I've just consulted the military section of the Romanian mission to the UN, who have basically confirmed what your friend said. I'll be producing another version later tonight as an update.

[Philippe]

While trying to convince myself that I didn't need to make minefield markers in the old-fashioned Romanian Cyrillic alphabet, I came across these photographs:

Romanian sword-toting cavalry in Bessarabia.

Romanians in the Caucasus.

A very clear shot of the Mark I two-humped Bactrian Camel (as opposed to the one-humped dromedary common to North Africa).

The military section of the UN Mission adjusted the punctuation on the minefield marker. The new version 2.0 that I have posted to cmmods looks like this:

I'm using "Pericol de mine" for anti-personnel mines. Just because I can read any Romance language without having studied it doesn't mean I can write it idiomatically. Keep those cards and letters coming.