More military stuff... Well, gee, I'd render pieces of footwear or consumer electronics, but hey that's just glorifying shoddy labour practices, human rights violations and all-out people trafficking... ;-) Ok, what about "elves" then? Well, Peter Jackson ran the last recruitment drive for folk to leave hearth and home behind to become elves, and presumably it didn't get them killed, or see them wading through mosquito-laden swamps under enemy fire, deafened by naval bombardment or dodging splintering palm trees.... On the scale of challenges, "The Making of The Hobbit" just doesn't quite make the cut, does it? I've rolled Neil's texture for his SBD Dauntless (Share CG) back to the Solomon Islands in mid-1942 to allow us to go on patrol, in a small way, with aircraft of the "Cactus Air Force" (these are the ones still airworthy despite the regular bombing, shelling and sundry accidents). To those who don't know, CACTUS was the code-name for Guadalcanal. You don't need to scratch Guadalcanal hard to find seaplanes. There was the time that the IJN launched a full-on floatplane raid on the captured airfield. Perhaps that was sour grapes. I've read that the airfield site on Guadalcanal was first-off the brainchild of the commander of the nearby Japanese seaplane base. I wonder what the Japanese for "Be careful what you wish for..." is? Once captured by the US Marines, the airfield construction site was apparently such a shocker in the early days that aircraft like SBDs were often bogged in mud and the USMC, USN and USAAF pilots and ground crews lived in a swamp fondly called "Mosquito Grove" (and presumably not named after a famous DeHavilland aircraft). I had to smile though when I read in Wikipedia that the Cactus force also extended to Grumman "Ducks" and PBY Catalinas - it WAS apparently muddy, but I truly hope these operated from the beach... ;-) Rendered in Vue 8 Esprit. Thanks for viewing and comments.