1:24 BMW e46 Stock BodyKIT (TransKIT)

The production shape instead of the racing one

Most of the available kits of the 3 Series of the e46 generation derive from the circuit version – wide flares, widened sills, an aggressive front end. Anyone who wants an ordinary car off the street in the display case has to take the shape back. That is exactly what this set aims at: it offers body parts in the form the car had as it left the dealer.

Why it is worth it for collectors

Civilian versions tend to be rarer in collections than racing ones, simply because fewer of them are made. A built series of one type – the sharp circuit variant next to the production one – meanwhile makes a far stronger impression in a display case than two similar race cars. The difference in the width of the fenders and in the front bumper is legible at once from the front.

The scene it belongs in

A production car suits a setting in which a circuit special would look out of place: in front of a family house, at a filling station, in a row of parked cars by the sidewalk. Ordinariness is the advantage here – the model becomes the backdrop of a story, not its only hero.

A building note

Before fitting, the castings are sanded at the parting line and tried dry against the body from the kit. The transitions between resin and plastic are best leveled with putty and sanded smooth, so that no step shows under the paint. A primer in one shade over the whole surface then unifies both materials. With the civilian form it holds in addition that an imperfection shows more than on a brightly decorated race car: clean single-color paint has nowhere to hide a ripple or a scratch, so give the preparation of the surface time.