3788 Scale Gorn Megalosaurus Light Cruiser (CL) 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.)

One glance at this ship shows that it is really just a heavy cruiser to which the rear bubble was never attached and with smaller engines. This was a key element of Gorn naval architecture; their ships came in pairs (battlecruiser and light cruiser, medium cruiser and heavy destroyer, battle destroyer and destroyer) with the larger design using two bubbles and the smaller design using just one. This not only simplified construction efficiency (since they used common parts) but allowed the fairly quick conversion of the smaller type into the larger should a military emergency (such as a major war with the Romulans) require a stronger fleet. The “Megalosaurus” Light Cruiser has the same torpedoes (two plasma-S and two plasma-F) as the heavy cruiser, and 75% of the phasers, but with less power it cannot use all of those weapons while moving at full speed.

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.