This Admiral Prophecy's

We love when spaceships suddenly appear! We recently spotted a Bluesky user named Admiral Fluffy posting a pair of VERY impressive 3D-printed Kilrathi fighters. Check 'em out!

And now for something completely different. A Vaktoth heavy fighter, post-war, slightly used, from the Wing Commander series of video games. (post)

The most iconic Kilrathi figher(and arguably the most iconic ship of the Wing Commander franchise), the Dralthi! Again, went with a post-war look so I kept it cleaner than the Vaktoth as it'd stay at home more. I'd love to do a corvette, but I don't think the Cats legitimately kept any post-treaty. (post)

Reminder: #Wingnut Cartoon Party TODAY!

This is a reminder that we have another fun #Wingnut event happening on Discord this morning! Join us at noon EST/9 AM PST for a fun filled morning of television... that all connect to Wing Commander somehow! This month we're looking at Babylon 5, a series beloved by the Wing Commander development team… which is referenced frequently! You can find details on the shows included as well as how to watch along with us in the announcement post here. Be sure to download the episodes so they're ready to play with the group!

#Wingnut Movie Night Back On!

Mac Renders the Big Boys

Mac has followed up his Excalibur work with some new renders of the entire Confederation fleet! He's posted the first one widely and others are available on his Patreon. Sounds worthwhile!

Omar over on the Patreon requested some renders of the Terran Confederation Fleet based on what I did for the Excalibur video, and I was like "Bruh, say no more".

So here's the first. The rest are on the Patreon but I'll upload them here soon enough. (post)

Soccer Post Redux

Last month, in honor of the World Cup, we posted about soccer references in the Wing Commander universe. Damage Report was paying attention and they pointed out that there's another one in the Privateer 2 mission we wrote about: Jurgon Finsman is a play on former German player and manaager Jürgen Klinsmann. Klinsmann would've been playing for Bayern Munich when Privateer 2 was being made, winning the 1995–96 UEFA Cup that year! (This may seem like a small update but I love learning about European references I'm missing in Privateer 2's extensive text and wanted to make sure this one was preserved for posterity.)

Another slight soccer connection is that one of Chris Roberts' first professional projects was the 1985 BBC Micro conversion of soccer game Match Day. Pretty green!

End Run Artist's Troubles

There's some very sad news from artist David Mattingly: he has updated his substack with an article about how at age 70 he is no longer able to paint the way he once did. Mr. Mattingly is probably best known as the artist behind the distinct book covers for the Animorphs and Honor Harrington novel serieses. His work is full of intense detail and bursts of movement that make for science fiction scenes like no one else is capable of. Wing Commander fans best know him as the artist who painted the glorious cover of End Run.

As Colonel Blair internal monologues, it's tough getting old… and the world is poorer for not getting more of Mr. Mattingly's work. Wing Commander fans everywhere would be well advised that he offers incredibly high quality prints of all of his work including is beloved End Run cover. I own one and the detail and the quality of the print is outstanding. You can show your support and buy your own; just search "Wing Commander" using his site's search.

Algae You Glad I Didn't Bother Thinking Through This Headline

America is currently going through a completely normal one that has somehow turned a scammy, botched pool repair into actual live protests in favor of algae. We have no special message here but we do want to report that Wing Commander fans CAN safely root for algae…

... because it flies on your wing in Privateer 2: The Darkening! Privateer 2's roster of weird and unusual wingmates includes one Phungid Mykofyle who we are told has not left his spacecraft in two years (since 2788?!) and as a result it now has "mould, algae and the like coating every surface". So when you see the goofballs saying they support algae… know that you've fought pirates with it!

NAME Phungid Mykofyle
RATING Reputable
SHIP Faldari MK II
HIRE 265
QUOTE
'I smell trouble'

BACKGROUND
Life as an escort pilot is nothing if not strenuous. The constant fear of death, the unremitting slaughter going on all around; it's not surprising that the pilots who survive develop their own idiosyncrasies and foibles. For Mykofyle, the price he's had to pay for continuing survival is the acquisition of chronic agoraphobia. He has refused to leave the cramped confines of his ship for at least two years, and the stench on board is reputedly ferocious, with mould, algae and the like coating every surface. However, all this doesn't seem to have affected his abilities as a mercenary, and he is a reliable, able escort.

Sadly, Phungid (boy his parents sure named him right?) shares his comms messages with two other wingmen (you can listen to them here) so he doesn't have any algae-specific messages. (What is algae? It's the green stuff you find occurring naturally in and around water. Or more technically, it refers to a variety of photosynthetic organisms that live in water, ranging from microalgae like phytoplanktons to things like seaweeds.)

Raiders, Take Two

Wing Commander Music to My Ears

Lost_Hawk has a cool surprise for everyone: they've been working on their own rearrangements of the MIDI tracks from the original Wing Commander! I'm no expert, but the end result seems pretty wonderful. Here's the full story and the two tracks Lost_Hawk has kindly shared. We're certainly hoping to hear more!

Hi everyone,

My name is Ulli (Lost_Hawk), I'm 45 years old and I'm writing to you from Germany. I’ve been a huge fan of the Wing Commander universe for a long time. Aside from the “Privateer” games, I've played and loved all the “Wing Commander” games, so that recently, I decided to start a personal passion project.

I am a hobbyist/amateur composer who creates music on the PC, working within the limits of my home setup in my free time. For this project, my goal was to take the freely available original MIDI files from Wing Commander 1 and rearrange them.

I tried to stay as true to the original soundtrack as possible while giving it a modern, rich orchestral sound with a little room of personal interpretation.

I have just finished the first two videos, combining the rearranged audio with the corresponding in-game scenes:

Video 1: Fanfare & Intro Cinematic

Video 2: On Board Business

Note: The videos are currently set to "Unlisted" on YouTube as I wanted to share them with this amazing community first.

Since I do this purely as a hobby, I just wanted to share this with you all for some pure nostalgia and to celebrate the classic atmosphere of the Tiger's Claw. As the project progresses, I am also planning to make the individual end extended audio tracks available as free music downloads for everyone.

Looking forward to chatting with you all.

Best regards,
Ulli

July Cartoon Party Jumps to July 25