Hellcat Bounce The IJN's Emily flying boats were well-armed but not invincible, as in this scene of one being "bounced" by Hellcats coming out of the sun- catching their opponent napping. With the fate of Admiral Yamamoto's Betty bomber "staff car" ever in mind, senior IJN commanders seem to have favoured the H8K when risking the Pacific's increasingly unlucky skies in mid-1940s. I say "unlucky," because in all the wide Pacific, plane-loads of IJN top brass tended to have the darnedest bad luck didn't they? Or perhaps some "armour" applied to the Navy cypher might have been helpful...? I found one account of an Emily playing coach to an Admiral that fell foul of some ULTRA inspired mischief- "accidently" found and downed by a single US Navy PB4Y-2 Privateer. It must have been a rude shock to be ambushed by a lone "bomber?" A Privateer? Aaaaarrr!!! Shiver me rivets! It sounds like Master and Commandeer re-written, doesn't it? It turns out that the Privateer was one mean bucket of bolts- literally the "back-to-the-drawing-board" evolution of the B24 Liberator into a kind of flying "pirate ship." Now that would be a great encounter to model! A prowling ship-killer, the skip-bombing Privateer bristled with turrets- making it, broadside to broadside, quite a match for any poor Ol' Emily it might have "chanced" upon. H8K2 modelled in Shade 10.5 and rendered in Vue 8 Espirit. The F6F Hellcats courtesy of BeyondVR (I've added other numbers to vary the existing texture). Cylinders with a "smoke" material create the tracer smoke in the foreground. Thanks for viewing...