The concept was that flying boats could operate from just about anywhere a supply ship could drop anchor, supporting land and naval forces with recon flights and bombing support until airfields could be hacked out of the nearby jungle. Somewhere like the (rather fittingly named) Shortland Islands, at the north-western gateway to the Solomons. Naturally, there were some things that big lumbering Kawanishi H6Ks and smaller floatplanes like Mitsubishi "Petes" could not be expected to do. Hence, the appearance of floatplane fighters at some seaplane bases in 1942, such as this Nakajima conversion of the Mitsubishi A6M2 (avail here at Rendo.). These apparently had some limited success against Allied B17s and B24s, but that didn't stop prowling American bombers from "dogfighting" successfully with the big Kawanishi flying boats! Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit other notable assets Kawanishi H6K4 "Mavis" - my model, using Shade. Freighter- "Hasuna" model, see the Google Sketch-up Warehouse, exported from SketchupPro trial as obj for loading into Vue. (If you are looking for a knock-about tramp steamer for a render, I recommend it!) Thanks for viewing and comments...