1:24 17 inch BMW Styling 29

The seventeen-inch Styling 29 pattern under the magnifying glass

The wheel carried under the sequence number 29 falls among the seventeen-inch ones, that is into the time when this size meant a sporting extra and not standard equipment. After conversion into a model the diameter of the rim drops below eighteen millimeters and an individual spoke is then narrower than a millimeter. It is precisely on a drawing like that that you can tell whether the production coped with a crisp edge, or whether the detail dissolved into a soft suggestion.

What to look at before painting

Look the part over against the light at a low angle. Fine horizontal stripes will give away the layering of the surface; a few strokes with a polishing sponge of medium grit will level them. A deeper unevenness, on the other hand, should be filled with spray putty, because sanding will thin the spoke before the groove disappears.

The base decides the resulting impression more than the covering paint. Under a light silver belongs a gray primer, while under a graphite shade or under an imitation of polished metal a gloss black one does. The difference between the two procedures is apparent on a finished wheel even from a meter away.

Wheels of this size were fitted on a number of cars in a mixed fitment, where the rear rim is a touch wider than the front one. If you want to suggest such a difference in a build, separate the two pairs right after unpacking and mark them from the back with a pencil; once painted you will not tell them apart.

Through the spokes on cars of this generation the brake disc can be seen. When you take it from a donor kit and paint it with a dark iron with a trace of rust in the groove, the wheel gains a depth that the rim on its own will never have.