1:24 BMW Styling 29 17 + tires

Wheels ready to go straight onto the axle

The pattern with the sequence number 29 comes in this version with the rubber as well, so there is no intermediate step between unpacking and the first trial under the fender. The profile of the tire matches the car in its original setting, which anyone will appreciate who is building a model the way the machine looked in the manufacturer's catalog of the day, without interventions in the geometry.

Seating and alignment

An axle in kits tends to be more flexible than it seems, and four wheels are apt to go each its own way. The proven procedure is to stand the part-built chassis on flat glass and press all the wheels against the surface at once while the glue sets. A deviation of a single degree reads on a finished model as a limp.

When the pin does not fit into the hole, it is the hole that is widened and never the pin that is thinned. Hold the little drill in your fingers while doing it, not in a tool: turning by hand leaves the wall smooth and centered, whereas high revolutions roll it out into an oval and the wheel then wobbles.

The rubber from wheel sets tends to be more pliable than hard plastic and will bear being pressed lightly into the arch. With a model that is to stand in a display case for years, however, do not overdo it: constant tension will deform the tire over time and the wheel will flatten in its lower part. It is safer to take 0.1 mm off the lip of the fender than to rely on the springiness of the material.

The last step belongs to the back. Dust the inner side of both the rubber and the rim with a dark gray, so that a clean surface does not shine out when one looks into the arch. It is a small thing that even someone who could not name it will sense in a photograph.