Disco 2000...

Nearly three years ago I hit the 1000 post milestone after 10 years of sharing my modelling here on Blogger. Today marks the 2000th post and well over 1.3 million views, be there two o'clock by the fountain down the road*. Quite the journey...

James Gardiner photo (http://www.rrpicturearchives.net/showPicture.aspx?id=5021911)

Layout count now stands at 15 and the 'Creech Bottom at Great and Small' is still the most read post (although 'An Ode to Shell Island' is a very close second) and I've still no readers in Antartica!

In recent years I've been excited to start a ready to run company Planet Industrials with good friend Stephen Fulljames and delivered our first model to much critical acclaim (third in the BRM awards last year). My YouTube channel has grown from a few esoteric videos to nearly 750 subscribers and a loyal following. I am most proud of the book, a childhood dream realised, proof if any were needed that they can come true. I've also been lucky enough to meet and grow new friendships, one of the tangible outputs being Chris and I co-authoring the Hilton and Mears series which has been both a great experience and the foundation of a wonderful trans-Atlantic friendship.

What does the future hold? As I write this the second book is about to go into proof reading with a summer release date planned which is absolutely fantastic. Planet Industrials has taken a little bit of a back seat but you should see continued kit development and releases into 2024 - hopefully in time a follow up project we can share too! There are a number of exciting collaborations that are on the cards too, which not only will be a lot of fun to create and work together with fantastic modellers and artists, but I'm really excited about what we're planning to produce - I can't say more now, but you all will be the first to know.

I wouldn't be able to do all of this without my wonderful customers and loyal blog readers. Your support either £££ or just by reading and sharing my work is so important to me that I can't thank you all enough. I hope the insight into what happens here, how I think and what I'm working on continues to enthuse, entertain and inspire you for the next 1000 posts!

That's probably enough waffle from me for today, normal service will resume tomorrow! Until next time, more soon...

*please excuse the rather obvious Pulp reference. Although nothing today with model railways, or blogging, it was an anthem of my late teens!