Tibet covers the size of the American Southwest, with an average elevation of 14,000ft (4,380m), surrounded by some of the highest mountain ranges in the world with the Himalayas to the south, the Karakoram to the west, and the Kunlun to the north. The terrain of north and western Tibet is barren mountain desert, the northeast province of Amdo resembles the Mongolian steppes, the southeast province of Kham drops slightly in altitude and the topography, according to the author,

“devolves into exaggerated slopes, impossibly narrow valleys, and gnarled conifers normally associated with Chinese watercolors. It is the central plateau, however, that has become synonymous with Tibet…it is a harsh, rocky land of hypnotic beauty where, because of the altitude, light seems to intensify colour and detail.”

Cliff Lord served in Britain’s Royal Signals during the 1960s as a cipher operator in England, Germany and on active service in Aden and the East Aden Protectorate. After the Army, Cliff worked in Paris for the Washington Post and later moved to New Zealand working as a computer operator, a communications network controller for Air New Zealand, and Team Leader International Operations for the Southern Cross fiber optics trans-pacific cable before retiring. He is Honorary Historian for Royal New Zealand Corps of Signals. Cliff has written nine books on military history and insignia.

This is a new tool that was added to UMM-USA’s line of modeling tools this fall. The tool consists of a thin double-edged saw blade and black plastic handle. It is intended to be used with resin parts and thin styrene.

The tool is used similar to a full-sized keyhole saw. While it can be used like a standard saw, cutting from the edge in, its principal use is to cut a hole inside a part. I experimented by drawing out a rectangular panel on scrap styrene, drilling pilot holes at each corner and then using the saw to cut from hole to hole, creating a rectangular opening. The corners were then cut out using a sharp Xacto knife.

AMMO by Mig has released a new line of acrylic paints for railroad modellers called the Rail Center. There are 41 railroad specific colors in the series, with twelve box sets:

• Ammo.R-1000 Spanish Renfe Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1001 Dutch Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1002 British Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1003 German DB Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1004 German DR Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1005 Germany DRG-DB Steam Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1006 Via Rail Canada Locomotives
• Ammo.R-1007 Classic American Railroad Companies – Locomotives Vol. 1
• Ammo.R-1008 Classic American Railroad Companies – Locomotives Vol. 2
• Ammo.R-1009 British Freight Cars
• Ammo.R-1010 American Freight Cars
• Ammo.R-1011 German Freight Cars

The paints depart from the familiar Ammo by Mig 17ml eye drop containers and are packaged in 15ml cylinders with stirring balls.

Helion is a UK based company that produces books on many aspects of Military History from the Late Medieval period through to the present day. Helion was established in 1996, and since then they have published almost 1,200 books, with 100 or more new titles coming out every year, for readers around the world.

David Francois, from France, earned his PhD in Contemporary History at the University of Burgundy and specialized in studying militant communism, its military history and relationship between politics and violence in contemporary history. In 2009, he co-authored the Guide des archives de l’Internationale communiste published by the French National Archives and the Maison des sciences de l’Homme in Dijon. He is regularly contributing articles for various French military history magazines and regular contributor to the French history website L’autre côté de la colline.