U18B Kitbash, 1903 & 322

Today's project is the ongoing kitbash of the U18B's. Although Intermountain makes a nice model of these in HO scale, the ones I needed were not available any more, so here I am working with a pair of Atlas U30C shells. Also of note, all of the prototypes I have chosen to model have the much older cabs with square headlight housings, which none of the Intermountain models represent. As part of my effort to always stay on a budget, I supplemented many parts from the Atlas spares on their website. Once painted, these cheap alternatives look just as good as anything from the high end detail parts manufacturers.

For these first two U18B's, SBD 1903 was chosen to lead the pack, pictured with the hose lights plated over:

This was also an experiment in using the cab kits from High-Tech. This is the first one I have ever built and while not horrible it will likely be replaced or touched up at a later point in this process. In addition I modified stock Atlas U23B frames to accept these shells, following instructions from a couple of articles on the subject of U18B's. However, my prototypes varied considerably from all the ones that have articles, so major adjustments must be made.

The aforementioned articles used two different shells merged together, generally the U23B and U33C/U30C. I was determined to make this work with a lone U30C shell. I would say this worked out well, despite the number of cuts that had to be made (4 total). This was my first time cutting up shells, but it did not turn out too bad once I perfected the method. Body putty from Testors was a real lifesaver here as well.

Ultimately I may elect to use Atlas cabs instead of the High-Tech kits, for the sake of cost savings and the simplicity of just dropping it on the shell. Dimensionally they are identical aside from the thickness of the cab walls, once painted it will hardly be a noticeable difference. Atlas seems to produce all 3 variants of the cab (4 window, 2 window, 2 window w/ 2 plated), and all in the square headlight format, which is required of my representations shown here.

The 4 window version above will become SCL 322 as it appeared in 1982, while the other model will be SBD 1903 (ex-SCL 303) as it appeared in 1985. The details on both will be about 90% matching, with the Seaboard System unit simply having different decals and heavy weathering.

Next update should be the completed walkways and pilots.