[Golden Bear]

This is my second scratch build after the Hoche. In contrast to the Hoche, the Massena has very little superstructure. She has a magnificent long bow, not for ramming but for additional flotation under the front of the ship.

I've been working on a CAD model for a few weeks now, trying to get all the problems solved at that stage rather than later during the build. I'm not quite done but I wanted to see how my fit was going to come out and I assembled the hull frames to check it out.

The first picture shows the frames dry fit with the Hoche in the background for size comparison.

The second picture shows my design technique. I don't like those hull frames where I am uncertain about whether I've lined up things in the correct spot or not. So the entire system interlocks. It holds together without any glue.