2020 - Review of the year

2020 was rubbish, is there anything more to say?

OK, here's the annual project update:

• 7mm scale Garratts STILL haven't been out of their boxes. I'm looking for a new builder for the one I've been commissioned to produce.
  
• 3mm scale Class 25 hasn't bothered to build itself.
• O gauge "Flying Banana" railcar, still in the box, and now there is a RTR version on the way.
  
• 4mm GWR steam railcar, I know it's one people would like to see finished. Me too.
• The Cravens DMU did see some progress but I fell out of love with it again, so it's back in the box. 

The Beetle didn't change either. I keep looking at it. I even bought a couple of VW magazines in an effort to find someone who would accept money for working on it, but that's proving harder than you might expect. 

Despite thinking I'd have to ease off the blog posting a bit, I've put out a post-a-day all year, something I'm both proud of and y amazed at. Page views have dropped off a bit towards the end of the year - that's a reminder to me to be more engaging and interesting. This isn't helped by my being busy, but we'll come to that later. We did hit the 5000th post in January, that's got to mean something. 

What did I build? 

Parker's Lockup from a Petite Properties kit.

 

A Lindberg Tugboat 

 A festive tank. 

and of course, there is the on-going Selly Oak project. 

There have been a few other little builds this year, but the truth is that Covid has seen me busier then ever with magazine work. One of the biggest hits to my time has come from Virtual Exhibitions, both took astounding amounts of time to put together. 

For the first, I built a micro layout called "Ferness Quay" and made videos of all the stages. This took place over four weeks in addition to my normal work, so there went several weekends and evenings. I'm really proud of the model, and it's been very useful as a background for other projects and reviews. 

There's been a project or two an issue for BRM, some for the Hornby Collectors Club and of course, editing Garden Rail. 

Shop closures, especially during the first lockdown, have hit physical magazine sales for everyone, although I'm pleased to say we are doing OK. There's been a lot of work going in to put out more digital content as well as the Virtual Shows. Our weekly newsletter always has a contribution from me and increasingly, this is more than just posting an article from the past. 

In theory, the loss of the show calendar should have left me with lots of spare hours - but it's been quite the opposite. Where does the time go? 

All this is very exciting, but I'll be honest, the thrill of building something for myself has been dented. Truth is, I struggle for motivation. I look at potential new projects and feel a flicker of excitement, but the enthusiasm to actually get started on something isn't there. 

Not being able to go anywhere or do anything has hit me harder than it really should do. Of course there are many people far worse off than me, so I shouldn't complain, but this is my blog so a tiny self-indulgent moan is allowed in my opinion. I've definitely used work to take my mind off the rest of the news and in doing so, buried myself and sometimes not stayed in touch with people and let them down. I must do better in 2021.

With a bit of luck, things will look up. My workload is looking a lot better for the early part of next year. As I write, I'm ahead on both main magazines with the prospect of improving this further in the near future. Mind you, last year I wrote, "I have a number of projects I'd like to work on and maybe there will even be a bit more time as my workload sorts itself out a bit and perhaps I become a bit more focussed and efficient." and THAT didn't happen did it?

There are some time-eating projects on the horizon with some exciting opportunities I'm keen to try. This is all part of the evolution of my job. We'll see how it all pans out. 

Anyway, thanks for reading all this, thanks for dropping in to the blog and seeing what I'm up to. Let's hope 2021 proves to be an improvement on its predecessor!