FSW Weekly Edition #33/2026

Hill's Interlagos Opener

GP Replicas' Williams FW16 2nd Brazil 1994 #0 Hill in 1:43 scale captures the opening act of a season that would change Formula 1 forever. Damon Hill arrived at Interlagos carrying the number zero on the nose, the consequence of Alain Prost's retirement as reigning champion, and alongside him in the sister car sat Ayrton Senna, newly arrived at Williams and expected by almost everyone to sweep the year before him. The race told a rather different story, with Michael Schumacher's Benetton proving the quicker proposition and Senna eventually spinning out of the lead battle in pursuit, leaving Hill to bring the FW16 home second and quietly begin the campaign that would take him to within a single point of the world championship. As a subject the #0 car marks the very start of 1994, a season whose consequences are still felt in the sport today, and it is a car that rarely receives the attention it deserves.

GP Replicas' resincast interpretation gives the FW16 the presentation it has long been owed, with the well finished, smartly presented construction and strong proportions that have become the maker's signature. The distinctive Williams shape of that first season without the electronic driver aids, and with mid-race refuelling restored, is cleanly resolved, and the Renault, Segafredo and Elf branding is neatly applied across the familiar blue and white livery. Due during 2026 and available to pre-order now with our online discount applied, it is exactly the sort of landmark subject that anchors a 1990s Formula 1 shelf.

The Williams heads a GP Replicas future production listing that reads like a tour through Formula 1's modern golden age. In 12th scale come the Lotus 98T race winners of Ayrton Senna, while the 43rd scale announcements take in the Mansell and Berger Ferrari 640 (F1/89), the Prost and Mansell Ferrari 641/2 (F1/90), Michael Schumacher's Ferrari F310, the Schumacher and Irvine Ferrari F399 and the Senna and Hill Williams FW16, the 43rd scale models offered as a mixture of versions with and without driver figures. For anyone building a Ferrari or Williams collection through the late eighties and nineties, this is a listing worth studying closely, and with the summer break now behind us the wider Formula 1 shelf remains well stocked, with Spark's delivery of 2025 and 2026 season cars and Minichamps' Silverstone one-two McLaren MCL39 pairing both still available to order.

Williams FW16 2nd Brazil 1994 #0 Hill - GPR43055A

Porsche 911 GT1-98 1st Le Mans 1998 #26 McNish/Aiello/Ortelli 1:64 - SPK64LM98

Porsche's Fiftieth Birthday Win

Spark's Porsche 911 GT1-98 1st Le Mans 1998 #26 McNish/Aiello/Ortelli in 1:64 scale commemorates one of the most emotional victories in the history of the 24 Hours. Built around the first carbon fibre monocoque Porsche had ever produced for a racing car, the GT1-98 went to La Sarthe in June 1998 against the might of Mercedes, Nissan and a Toyota GT-One that led deep into the race before its gearbox failed, and it emerged with a result the factory had scarcely dared hope for. Allan McNish, Laurent Aiello and Stéphane Ortelli took the #26 car to the win, with the sister #25 of Bob Wollek, Jörg Müller and Uwe Alzen completing a Porsche one-two in the year the company celebrated its fiftieth anniversary, and only weeks after the death of Ferry Porsche. It was the last outright Le Mans victory the marque would take until the hybrid era arrived in 2015, and it remains the definitive closing statement of the GT1 age.

Spark's 64th scale interpretation brings the subject to a scale that has grown enormously in popularity, and the maker has both cars in preparation, the winning #26 and the second-placed sister car of Wollek, Müller and Alzen, so the full podium-topping pair can be presented together as they crossed the line. The GT1-98's low, wide, unmistakably purposeful shape suits the format perfectly, and the Mobil and IBM branding is sharply reproduced across the white bodywork. Both are available to pre-order now with our online discount applied, and at this scale a complete Le Mans-winning story can be told without surrendering half a shelf to it.

The endurance and GT shelf has a further addition this week from Mini GT, which is taking pre-orders for its 1:64 diecast models of the Lamborghini Huracan GT3 Evo2 that finished twentieth at Mosport in 2025, the #45 car of Dex, alongside the Lancia Delta Integrale Evo from the 1993 Monte Carlo Rally, the #5 machine of Aghini and Farnocchia, both of which are due for release during Q2/2027. Elsewhere the strong endurance content of recent weeks remains open for ordering, with TrueScale and Top Speed's Daytona-flavoured delivery, Looksmart's full Spa 24 Hours Ferrari 296 GT3 line-up and Looksmart's fifteen classic Le Mans Ferraris all still available, and with Aston Martin's updated Valkyrie having turned its first laps at Hinton and Silverstone this week, the modern Hypercar era looks set to keep the miniature shelves busy for some time yet.

Prost's Dijon Breakthrough

Tameo Kits' Renault RE30 1st France 1981 #15/16 Prost/Arnoux in 1:43 scale takes us back to the moment one of the sport's greatest careers properly began. Renault had spent four seasons persuading a sceptical paddock that a 1.5-litre turbocharged engine could win Grands Prix, and at Dijon-Prenois on 5 July 1981 the argument was settled in front of a home crowd. The race was stopped by heavy rain after 58 laps and restarted, with the final order decided on aggregate times, and it was Alain Prost, in his first season with the factory Renault team, who came through to take the first of what would eventually be fifty-one Formula 1 victories, with René Arnoux in the sister yellow and black car. The RE30 is one of the defining machines of the pioneering turbo era, and this is the race that turned Renault's long experiment into a genuine championship proposition.

Tameo Kits' highly detailed resin and metal kit offers the builder the choice of finishing either Prost's #15 or Arnoux's #16 car, giving two quite different results from a single box, and it arrives with the finely produced photo-etched components, comprehensive decal sheet and clear instructions that have made Tameo the market leader in 1:43 Formula 1 kits. The RE30's distinctive proportions, its slim nose, broad sidepods and purposeful rear bodywork are all faithfully captured, and for the modeller who wants a subject with genuine historical weight this is as good a starting point as the turbo era offers. It is available to order now.

There is more for the builder and the classic collector besides. KK Scale supplies the week's most unusual announcement with a 1:18 model of the 1955 DeSoto Fireflite Sedan, due during October in four attractive period two-tone colour schemes, a piece of mid-fifties Americana that will stand out on any shelf. KK Scale also expects to make first delivery of its new 1:18 diecast models of the 1998 E39 BMW M5, which will be available in two shades of metallic blue and in black, a subject that needs no introduction to anyone who followed the saloon car wars of the late nineties. For those who prefer to build rather than buy, Marsh Models' ambitious remastering of the 1967 Eagle Mk1 Weslake, with its 3D-printed resin body, re-cast ancillary parts and choice of sixteen race versions, continues to progress As well as Marsh Models' splendid Lotus 30 collection which also remains available to order, with 1:43 hand-built models of the car in competition during 1964 and 1965 headed by Jim Clark's entries from Mosport, Brands Hatch, Silverstone and Riverside, alongside examples driven by Bob Bondurant, Frank Gardner and David Prophet, and with the resin and metal kit offering options covering the various race versions for anyone who would rather build one of Lotus's most distinctive sports racing cars themselves. Pocher's 1:8 Ferrari 12Cilindri kit of more than 580 parts remains the biggest project on the shelf for anyone with thirty hours and more to spare.

Renault RE30 1st France 1981 #15/16 Prost/Arnoux - TMK454