Bestowing Bob's Badass Bengal

Remember that swanky Tiger's Claw in Bob's recent propaganda poster? It was singled out for being a nifty artistic take on the ship, and now it's yours to download! Grab the 3DS Max 7 model here (160 k zip). This rendition of the Claw is based off some of the perspectives seen in the Wing Commander Academy television show. How cool would this be to see in someone's WC mod?

No, sadly it doesn't look that quite that good, but the hull color should be the same (and I think I got the bridge lights in place all proper-like!) I don't have any proper images of it save for the poster at the bottom, so that'll have to do for now.

This is more of a skeleton model, rather than a polished finished work - it's actually closer to a mock-up, but it should be possible for an enterprising artist to build it up into something impressive.

* This is a max 7 file. You'll need 3ds max 7, a subsequent version of the program or one that can handle .max 7 files to be able to open it. I'd planned to export it to a more reasonable format, like .obj (the one foolproof max export format), but a spectacular cascade of equipment failures culminating with being IP-banned from the CIC server for three days made me decide to get it out now. I'd thought it lost, weeks before, so I'm glad that I have it to offer at all. Hopefully I'll have an .obj (and screenshots) by Wing Commander's twentieth birthday on the 26th, assuming nobody else manages to get any.

* This is set up a little differently from other max scenes you might have worked with - the main file contains only the Tiger's Claw base hull. The bridge tower and the forward wing turrets are linked to TCS Tiger's Claw.max through a process I can't remember. There was also, apparently, another turret design - "Turret02.max". Can't find it now. Sorry. Don't worry about "can't find Red Sun.max" or "BackgroundEmptySpace.bmp" errors, or the big hollow sphere in the background for that matter - all of those were used to create the image at the end of the file; they're not relevant to the actual model.

CIC Forums Go Mobile

The CIC Forums look better on the latest generation of smartphones than ever before, but they're still a bit cumbersome to use. KrisV fixed that today with an upgrade to support Forum Runner. The new app support allows iPhone users to browse threads and reply to posts as easily as working with email. The free version only allows browsing, but the full app is only $2 and includes push notifications, advance image support and full posting options. Try out FR Free first and see what you think. Additional versions for Android and Blackberry are also in work. If a ton of people would be interested in using this, we can even look into subsidizing a site license.