1960s Romanian AK Family Photo

[Phosphorus32]

Here's my trio of Romanian Pistol Mitralieră Kalshnikov facsimiles.

The PM.63 (fixed stock AKM copy) was created by dressing up a WASR-10 in correct furniture. The PM.64 (RPK copy) is an AES-10B dressed up in correct furniture. Only the PM.65 underfolder (AKMS copy) is relatively close (for the US market) to being an actual milsurp with a Romanian PM.65 parts kit built on a Morissey receiver and new barrel that I obtained from Atlantic Firearms about 3 years ago as an unfinished assembly missing only the FCG and furniture.

The reverse dong lower handguard for the PM.65 I scored just a couple of weeks ago from the Gunboards WTS sub-forum. They are tough to find and I had a plain (no dong) lower handguard on it since I assembled it. This one had a chip at the bottom and badly degraded finish, so I got it for $48 shipped, rather than the typical $100 that these go for these days. Now it feels complete. The rest of the furniture sets I obtained when they were still available from Apex 3 years ago. All of them had very rough finish: flaking, blistered, or missing shellac.

On all pieces, I stripped the remnants of shellac by soaking in denatured alcohol, scraping off the shellac, and followed by a light rub with coarse (#0) steel wool. In all cases they were finished with a few coats of quality garnet flake shellac dissolved in alcohol. The drum and 40 round magazines are also Romanian, although the drum is new production.

[Bacarnal]

Jon, nice job especially on the wood finish .  I'd never heard the foregrip described as such, but now that you mention it, it's hard to get out of mind .

[Phosphorus32]

Jon, nice job especially on the wood finish .  I'd never heard the foregrip described as such, but now that you mention it, it's hard to get out of mind .

Thanks Bruce!    I just used multiple thin layers of reddish-brown garnet shellac until it reached an acceptable color. It's fun to watch the color change with increasing depth of shellac.

I've seen that "collectors' terminology" for the integral handgrip for so long that I don't even think about the word origin 

[Shoot The Refurbs]

Jon, nice job especially on the wood finish .  I'd never heard the foregrip described as such, but now that you mention it, it's hard to get out of mind .

Thanks Bruce!    I just used multiple thin layers of reddish-brown garnet shellac until it reached an acceptable color. It's fun to watch the color change with increasing depth of shellac.

I've seen that "collectors' terminology" for the integral handgrip for so long that I don't even think about the word origin 

Funny you mention the terminology, I've always heard the reverse dongs referred to as 'ladyboys' 
Now get that out of your head. 

But on a serious note, that's a fantastic trio you've got there. The E tool adds a nice touch 

[lowell66dart]

Very, very nice. I am going to get an AK with a bipod soon.

[BMont]

Nice Romi collection you have.  Every one wants their dongs to match their rifles...hahaha. 

[Phosphorus32]

Funny you mention the terminology, I've always heard the reverse dongs referred to as 'ladyboys' 
Now get that out of your head. 

But on a serious note, that's a fantastic trio you've got there. The E tool adds a nice touch 

Thanks STR! I have a thing for entrenching tools, mattocks, shovels and other tools too 

[Phosphorus32]

Very, very nice. I am going to get an AK with a bipod soon.

Thanks. The RPK bipod is old school but cool. Telescoping legs and a clip that  keeps it secured by the barrel when retracted.

[Phosphorus32]

Nice Romi collection you have.  Every one wants their dongs to match their rifles...hahaha.

Thanks! I didn't bring out the PSL, but at least I've got the mid-1960s 7.62x39 grouping.

[Bob_The_Student]

Well, I was afraid to open this thread. I thought I would get wet from GM drool, since it had Romanian in the title. But I had to know what I was missing even with the potential for getting drooled on. 
Jon, the family looks great. You should send them off on an eastern (not Easter) vacation and let them enjoy the Midwest sun (if it exists) in Ohio. I can personally show them around. 
Great job on the finish and that PM64 clone is pretty f'n cool. So here I am part Romanian and I'm doing the drooling. 

[Greasemonkey]

  I love me some Romanians..  I aint gonna lie.  Romanians.. yes.. dongs... Uhm, no.  I like the happy grabby place to be smooth...    I would love to find an RPK stock set like he is sporting to fit on my NHM91. Clubfoots are awesome compared to the bunghole thumbhole stocks..

[Phosphorus32]

Well, I was afraid to open this thread. I thought I would get wet from GM drool, since it had Romanian in the title. But I had to know what I was missing even with the potential for getting drooled on. 
Jon, the family looks great. You should send them off on an eastern (not Easter) vacation and let them enjoy the Midwest sun (if it exists) in Ohio. I can personally show them around. 
Great job on the finish and that PM64 clone is pretty f'n cool. So here I am part Romanian and I'm doing the drooling. 

Thanks a bunch Bob! I'll give you the same empty promise I give to GM to ship my wares your way 

I was happy to find those Romanian PM.64 stock sets. Again, very rough remnants of shellac, but it cleaned up nice. The sling is actually a Russian RPK sling obtained from one of the FSU countries off of eBay last year.

I think the RPK/PM.64 is interesting in that it's only about 2cm longer than an SKS but has a considerably longer barrel. 1.5mm receiver makes them quite robust, especially since these are merely semi-auto versions, whereas the thicker receiver sheet metal was to help them stand up to full auto punishment. They should last forever.

[Phosphorus32]

I love me some Romanians..  I aint gonna lie.  Romanians.. yes.. dongs... Uhm, no.  I like the happy grabby place to be smooth...    I would love to find an RPK stock set like he is sporting to fit on my NHM91. Clubfoots are awesome compared to the bunghole thumbhole stocks..

Agreed. I like the clubfoot stocks. It came with the typical boring fine-grained blonde stocks that are found on the Romanian products for the US these days. The old laminate definitely dresses it up.

[Direct Connection]

Nice family of some awesome looking milsurp P32. Great write and pics. I took a modern Wsar 2015 and did some old school furniture that I really like also. You did really good work on these guys.

Looking at your pics reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw at Travis AFB today. It had the Vietnam logo and said "The only woodstock i saw in 1969 was carried by the enemy" 

[Phosphorus32]

Nice family of some awesome looking milsurp P32. Great write and pics. I took a modern Wsar 2015 and did some old school furniture that I really like also. You did really good work on these guys.

Looking at your pics reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw at Travis AFB today. It had the Vietnam logo and said "The only woodstock i saw in 1969 was carried by the enemy" 

Thanks very much DC!

Took me more than a second on that bumper sticker meaning  but I love it! 

[Greatguns]

Nice family of some awesome looking milsurp P32. Great write and pics. I took a modern Wsar 2015 and did some old school furniture that I really like also. You did really good work on these guys.

Looking at your pics reminds me of a bumper sticker I saw at Travis AFB today. It had the Vietnam logo and said "The only woodstock i saw in 1969 was carried by the enemy" 

Totally off topic, but my dad's last base he was stationed at was Travis AFB and I used to own the original cut of the Woodstock double album. I think he did his second stint over in Nam around that time as well.

You may now resume your regularly scheduled programing...which is admiring P32's Romy appliances.

[Phosphorus32]

Cool history GG! I still have the Woodstock album in my old 1970s to 1980s record collection 

The only AFB I have a connection to is Tyndall AFB, which is where I did my first postdoctoral fellowship (as a civilian) at an Air Force environmental research lab, 29 years ago.

I had to look up the location of Travis. It makes sense now why my Delta flight always heads well north  before turning northeast on the OAK to SLC hop, which is my frequently flown one-stop route back to PSC.

[Greatguns]

Yeah, anything going east out of the bay area has to clear military fly zone around Travis/Fairfield. DC(KK) and I have discussed this before since he is in my old stomping grounds, I graduated HS in Fairfield back in '77 3-4 months before my dad(he was actually my stepdad, but that's another story) retired from the AF. He went through the entire Viet Nam war '55-'77 in the AF.

Bet you had some good times there at Panama City going to the beach and all that. My Sister and BIL(retired AF Col.) retired there. They started out in Niceville by Eglin, but moved to a smaller house in Panama City Beach a few years ago.

[Phosphorus32]

Interesting. It was nice living in the area for 4 years (3 of the 4 residing in PC Beach), but I don't miss the humidity, the flat topography, or the drivers. The beaches on Tyndall AFB were incredible. Back then, we could just head southeast towards Mexico Beach on Hwy. 98, turn right on a sandy road toward St. Andrews sound, and hang out on a beach with nobody else in sight. Still on the property of the AFB but nothing down there. Used to dig in the sand and pull up rusty old .50 cal bullets, probably from WWII if they were using iron for practice bullets. Hanging out on the white sand beaches of Panama City Beach itself wasn't bad either, especially during college Spring Break season

[Cz315]

Nice setup there, 32P! At this rate you are going to enable me into getting a parts kit I stayed away from those as there is an inherent "non-originality" involved in their builds and I heard it is not very straightforward to put them together, but maybe I should...(_{desperately trying to control myself})