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Nathan Preston started in the early 1960’s in Des Plaines Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He did not have store but just did mail order. He sold primarily German made models. Sometime in the late 60s, I think late 1968, he moved to Bamburg Germany where he and German fellow opened a shop. I presume that Preston knew the fellow from time he had previously spent in Germany. I believe the two had more than a mere business relationship.
I don’t recall when Preston died but after he did, the other fellow run the shop for many years, and subsequently someone, probably An employee took over.
I visited the shop a couple of times, once in the 70s when Preston was alive and once long after he died and the shop had moved to a different location. I recall, that on the latter occasion the shop sold lots of hobby items and few ship models were on display, but they had them in stock in back and if you wanted to see something you looked in their catalog and asked them to bring it out. Previous Message
Paul, I've inferred that N.R.Preston was once in Chicago, and (maybe?) even had a store-front presence. By the time I came to the hobby, they were in Bamberg, Germany. What's the story there? Previous Message
The closure of Alnavco brings an end to a story that began some 80 years ago. Comet Authenticast and Framburg began producing 1/1200 scale ID models for the military during World War II and when Comet Authenticast closed in 1961, several collectors in Virginia bought their stock and molds and began producing the Superior line of models. Framburg, which ceased producing models after the war did not object to Superior copying their models so they used those too. Alnavco, started by Pete Paschall around 1965 as a distributor of Superior models eventually became the owner of the Superior line. So, Superior, which started in 1962 and lasted well over 60 years, was one of the largest and longest lasting producers of miniature scale waterline models. Previous Message
A fellow collector pointed out to me a big change in the Alnavco website, accessed through the homepage link. You'll miss out on an important and bittersweet bit of hobby history if you don't check it out.
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