3788 Scale Fed Classic Middle Years Destroyer DDM

What few knew until a recently translated section of the tapes revealed the secret is that the Federation destroyer (DD) was originally built with two photon torpedoes, not four. The extra space was used for storage (always short on the cramped destroyers). The concept of using as many common parts with the heavy cruiser was a valid one (and saved Star Fleet billions of credits), but the design engineers knew that the ship would only rarely find a situation in which it could stop to arm a third and fourth torpedo. For this reason, these weapons were simply not installed in the original design (except for five intended for siege operations). Most of the destroyers that began the General War started life as Middle Years destroyers.

By the time of the Four Powers War, the Federation began to study ways to better utilize the destroyers. A special design branch existed for just this purpose. Conversions of existing Middle Years destroyers to four-barrel destroyers began two years into the Four Powers War. The destroyer leader (with Gorn plasma-Fs) followed six years later, the guided weapons destroyer (with drone racks) was built in the next year, and the destroyer escort (with Gatling phaser) was finished just as the General War started. All used the extra space left empty in the original design. By the first year of the General War, all ships of this type had additional weapons added, and this basic two-photon design no longer existed. The fans asked for the smooth-saucer version as a classic look and for ease of adding decals.

These ships used the original destroyer names and retained those names when extra weapons were installed. These names are 0500 Saladin, 0502 Darius, 0503 Alaric, 0504 Sargon, 0505 Xerxes, 0506 Pompey, 0508 Suleiman, 0509 Etzel, 0510 Tamerlane, 0511 Alexander, 0512 Hannibal, 0513 Ahriman, 0514 Rahman, 0515 Adad, 0516 Hashishiyun, 0517 Azrael, 0518 Hamilcar, 0520 Ares, 0521 Pazuzu, 0522 Hiawatha, 0523 Atilla, 0525 Golda Meir, 0526 Brigham Young, 0529 Skanderbeg, 0530 Charlemagne, 0531 Daniel Morgan, 0533 Israel Putnam, 0534 Eisenhower, 0536 R E Lee, and 0537 Thutmoses III.

This 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.