In the years between the first two world wars, the new empire of Japan, like other Imperial/Colonial powers in the West Pacific, relied upon the new fangled flying-boats to reach remote island possessions. Here we have a "civilianized" Type 97 flying boat (Kawanishi H6K2-L) of Greater Nippon Airways (Dai Nippon Koku). The title evokes the Chinese tradition of the "dragon gate" - a fish that leaps an insurmountable waterfall and transforms into a dragon. Thats a parable for a flying-boat if there ever was one! Possibly the most stylish of the pre-war flying-boats, I think the type 97's profile actually fills the role of "dragon" too- even if in combat it was tragically a fuel-dump with wings. I know what you are thinking... flying boats again. What is it with all these flying boats? Maybe I really should get my mind out of the past and worry about the world's pressing problems, like who all those hard workers in China are going to sell things to if everyone else in the world is flat broke. Yet this was a time when many white European nations basked in cosy cocoons of Imperialist self-belief, perhaps none more so than the former colonists here "Down Under." So you can appreciate that having a minnow like Japan "step up" in a generation or two to become the first non-European "Great Power" of the modern age caused considerable alarm hereabouts. It sparked calls for this emergent Asian superpower to be shut out, contained, boxed in etc. etc. etc. So, is any of this beginning to sound familiar? All I can say is that I hope everyone out there makes a better job of the "living in perfect harmony" stakes this time around. For everyone's sake. Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit (the junk is available from Cornucopia 3D) The wake is a series of submerged wiggly objects that manage to project onto the surface, it might be an artefact of "foam on coasts" or refraction or both... but it works. I modelled the Kawanishi H6K2-L in Shade 10 (its a glorious detour from the H6K4 model I'm working on at the moment!)