Rum Runner / Glencoe 110' subchaser kitbash (1/74th)

[Story]

Thumbnail backstory: the wooden hulled 110' WW1 subchasers were sold off at auction in both East and West coast pots. Many were repurposed as "fishing boats" and/or rumrunners [think BOARDWALK EMPIRE] to bring booze in from the 12 mile line to the coastal lighters hidden in coves and such.

This is as far as I got before losing steam at some point during COVID.

Pre-COVID stopping point.

This is what they look like, factory fresh

[Story]

I acquired two GLENCOE kits as scrap (art imitates life, once again) - one in brown plastic, the other in light blue.

IIRC, the brown is slated to be a water-line model.



Here's Steve Klein's interpretation  - I'm not sure if this is the GLENCOE or the DUMAS kit
https://www.subchaser.org/rum-runner-steve-klein

[Frank3k]

That looks like a nice boat despite the kits age. The rum runner probably didn't need all the masts and rigging, either.

[finsrin]

Most interesting.  Handful of these are in stash, like to see how they turn out.  Looking good at this point. 

[raafif]

  You definitely have to fit that red caboose on somewhere.

[Story]

As received, with progressive demilitarization pics (art imitates life, right?)

[Story]

Here's where my head went, taking the role of rum runner after going down the historical rabbit hole.

That looks like a nice boat despite the kits age. The rum runner probably didn't need all the masts and rigging, either.

From what I've gleaned, at best they needed a radio mast capable of picking up warnings from shore about the Coast Guard heading out or the cops' movements.

Tall masts could be a detriment, leading to discovery.

[apophenia]

Watching this one with interest 

I know the engine bay will be well-hidden on your model ... but any idea what powered the original rum-runner? Here at the export end of the supply chain, they seemed to have mainly been twin war-surplus Liberty 12s.

[Buzzbomb]

I like the thoughts behind this.

Would be an ideal subject for a Pirate/Smuggler Group build as well

[perttime]

During the Finnish prohibition (until 5th day of 4th month in '32 at 10 AM), smugglers were going for the fastest boats they could get. If Authorities were getting a new faster boat, smugglers bought bigger engines.

[Story]

I know the engine bay will be well-hidden on your model ... but any idea what powered the original rum-runner? Here at the export end of the supply chain, they seemed to have mainly been twin war-surplus Liberty 12s.

This website - which hosts Steve Klein's build linked above - is chock full of the technical details. https://www.subchaser.org/

You guys ever notice that on identical projects and totally without coordination or even awareness of the others' work, we hit on the same notes?

Klein fitted two nestled dories over his engine room but you'll see that my take (predating his) has two smaller boats side-by-side in the same location, on quick-release rails (for the crew to escape the Coast Guard and Revenuers).

Area of Operations context

With its proximity to Philadelphia, New York and Baltimore, Cape May County was a perfect location for lawbreakers during Prohibition. Rumrunners operating along the Atlantic Seaboard and Delaware Bay teamed up with backwoods bootleggers to make Cape May County a bustling center of the era's illegal liquor business. It seemed as if every house around Otten's Harbor in Wildwood was a speakeasy. Bill McCoy would sail from the Caribbean to Jersey with undiluted rum, gaining praise as the "real McCoy." When authorities eventually shut down Cape May's Rum Row, the production of Jersey Lightning just moved to the Pine Barrens. Local historian Raymond Rebmann reveals how Cape May County turned from a sleepy beach community to a smuggler's paradise in the 1920s.

https://www.everand.com/book/421638717/Prohibition-in-Cape-May-County-Wetter-than-the-Atlantic

Further up the coast is Ocean City, a still-very-chill resort town that hosted this imagination fueling shop 50 years ago (coincidentally, at the halfway point between Peak Prohibition and today). Smuggling along that coast has been a local hobby since before the American Revolution.

https://oceancitydays.blogspot.com/2012/08/tracking-down-iron-mike.html

Edit  - come to think of it, this place was probably also an inspiration with reference to Frank's comment "Looks good, especially on the log. You could probably sell it in a New England/nautical antique shop."