3125 Scale Gorn Brontosaurus Fleet Tug (2 Pods) SR

The Gorns are six-to-seven-foot-tall, 350-pound, cold-blooded, egg-laying, reptilian humanoids bearing a superficial resemblance to a T-Rex or Raptor. Despite the fearsome visage, they are actually quite civilized people who run one of the few democracies in the galaxy. The Federation and Gorns met in a border incident in which two hot-headed captains shot first and faced embarrassing questions later. (A Federation corporation built an unauthorized colony outside of Federation territory. The Gorns saw a few Vulcans and thought the colonists were Romulans (with which they had fought wars for over a century). Diplomats smoothed everything over and the Gorns became the most stable ally of the Federation. The Gorn legislature’s reluctance to spend money or join the Federation's war limited this alliance during some periods. (Note: The dinosaur-based names are Federation “reporting names” because few in the Federation could pronounce the Gorn names for them. Shown books on paleontology, the Gorns were reportedly honored and amused by the naming convention.)

While most fleet tugs are based on a heavy cruiser design, the Gorn tug actually uses the hull of a light cruiser with heavy cruiser engines. This makes sense as the heavy cruiser would be that plus a rear bubble. In the case of the tug, the Gorns carried one or two pods in place of the heavy cruiser's rear bubble. The two pods are stacked using the upper and lower docking ports. To drop one pod and proceed with the other, the tug would have to stop, drop both pods, and then reattach the one it wanted to keep on the unused center docking port. (By the 23rd century, the proper name of the dinosaur also known as Apatosaurus had been restored. The same scientist, O. C. Marsh of Yale, coined both names, and he always called it Brontosaurus.)

The ship is available in a variety of materials. Ships are unpainted, use standard flight stands available from many sources, and, while designed for gaming, make fine display pieces.