Historic Racing Miniatures Miller 91 FWD

[tomfaletti]

Harold Bradford, owner of Historic Racing Miniatures, recently released his 1/25 Miller 91 Front Drive kit. He doesn't have a website, and doesn't do much advertising, therefore I thought I woud share his contact info here. In my opinion, the fine quality of his castings hasn't been matched since the Etzel kits of days gone by...

He does hand laced wire wheels, however, unlike the SE Finecast wheels each of his spokes are placed individually. The photos show the Finecast tires, but Harold includes his own newly created tires with the kit.






He currently offers the Packard Cable Decals from the 1929 Leon Duray team, and plans to offer the #4 decals for Duray's 1928 car in the future. Harold can be contacted at:

Harold Bradford
Historic Racing MIniatures
14008 Adkins Road
Laurel, MD 20708

301-604-8591

At $175.00 the kits are a little pricey, but I think they are worth every cent. BTW, coincidently, Harold lives virtually across the street from the site of the old Laurel, MD board track of the twenties.

[clm1545]

I hope we can look forward to a WIP of this kit from you, Tom. $175 is a little steep, but that looks so good I gotta have one.
Take Care
Craig

[racerbrown]

and considering how pricey the etzel miller kits go for on ebay these days, i guess $175.00 isn't too bad.
thanks for sharing this tom as i hope to order one soon.
duane

[jamesharvey]

Tom,
Thanks for sharing this. It looks like a great kit. I think I will order one as well. I encourage you to share a WIP since you do such a great job building. Your models of this era are first class.
Thanks,
Jim

[billj]

Great looking kit and the wheels are awesome as well. Historic Racing Miniatures has made some of the finest engineered and executed kits and parts in the modeling community. I'd never hesitate to buy anything HRM makes. I'd love to see the Miller all finished up.

[clm1545]

I see that Chris Etzel just sold a rear drive on Ebay for $261.00. Makes this kit look like a real deal.
Take Care
Craig

[johnwebster]

I'm very happy to see this and will be buying at least one.

I had the opportunity to take some pics of the Leon Duray car that had qualified for the Italian Gran Prix and was subsequently bought by Ettore Bugatti. This car was found under a dust sheet by Grif Borgeson when the Bugatti factory was auctioned off. He managed to arrange enough loans (by transatlantic cable) to buy this and it's sister car and bring them back to the U.S..

The pics are at:

smg.photobucket.com/user/midpoint/library/#/user/midpoint/library/Miller%2091%20straight%20eight%20FWD?sort=4&page=1&_suid=138442178789006837162438550742

[racerbrown]

great pics john.
thanks for sharing.
duane

[Deleted]

Great modeling from Harold & HRM are producing. Considering the number of detailed parts, including seperate gages for the dash, and pre laced wheel the $175.00 is probably well justified.

Definately want so see the WIP on this one.

Thanks,
John

[raceparke]

Great photos. Thanks for sharing. I really need to start working on the CFO here.

[hurtubise56]

Pretty sure my wife has bought one of these for me for Christmas! I'll let you all know for sure Christmas morning. Can't wait!

Brian

[racerbrown]

received mine yesterday in the mail. harold had even called to let me know that it was going out last monday.
haven't had a chance to look it over yet but i know it's first class.
duane

[clm1545]

I told Calvin that I would post some additional pics of the kit.

The grill and FWD casting

Engine, intercooler, and exhaust header

Front suspension parts

Nuts bolts, and rivets. If you have a good eye, you can see some thread detail on the bolts


Wheels, tires, and knock offs
[img src="http://i.imgi.imgur.com/mOcGV8ll.jpg"]
Decals for the Packard Cable car note the lower right corner

Parts list
This may just be the best kit I have ever seen. I have done nothing to these parts, they are that clean out of the box. I will build mine, but I hope someone with better skills than I have will show us just how good this kit is.
Take Care
Craig

[clm1545]

Screwed up the decal pic, here it is

[pntmachine]

What a Beauty!!!!

[Calvin]

Very impressive! The work is just outstanding looking! Thanks for the extra info about this kit, Craig.
HRM deserves the extra publicity for such a fine kit.

[johnwebster]

Just because I'm a Miller fan let me point out that the engine is a 91 cubic inch straight eight double overhead cam with four valves per cylinder and crossflow heads. The fuel/air mixture was run through a gear driven centrifugal supercharger and then through an intercooler (that big finned thing on the right side of the hood) into the cylinders at pressures reputed to be as high as 90 psi.

Rumors are that some of those engines produced over 300 horsepower. Cliff Woodbury got one up to 180.9 mph on the beach at Daytona in 1930.

[hurtubise56]

I DID get one for Christmas, it's about the best resin I've ever seen. However, I was a little disappointed in the "instructions". I'm used to Lance and Chris' method of a pic of all parts with identification, this kit just included a parts list, no pic so it took me about 1-1/2 hours to go thru all the little packages of parts and try to identify them. There are still two or three I'm not sure about! As far as assembly instructions, there are general instructions for suspension and engine, but only a few small pics, hard to see details, and many parts are not mentioned at all, they are all called out by name and unless you are very familiar with this car, many can be hard to figure out as far as placement or orientation. All this said, I'm glad I got it and John's pics (see link in his post above) of the restored car answered all my parts questions. This is my first HRM kit and I would buy another, funds permitting, especially if he does another Indy car. I might even save up for a Cobra Daytona!

Brian

[2lapsdown]

Brian, thanks for the kit review. Customer reviews add a lot of value to the knowledge base on the forum.

John

[clm1545]

Good post, Brian. I am also a little overwhelmed by the kit. I hope Tom will do a WIP. It would be a real help to see how a master builder puts this gem togeather.
Take Care
Craig