Yeah. I know the missionpack will change everything. I'm just playing around trying different things out to get more familiar with the code.
I'm just trying to save you some work and possible heartbreak.
I downloaded q3font and tried it. It seems to create all of the files, but when I open the .tga files in the GIMP, all I see is a big white square. Any idea what I am doing wrong?
Nothing, that is how the GIMP displays alpha channels. If you look under the channel's tab you'll sorta see the full image, not sure if they fixed this in 2.4 but I doubt it, that is how X also displays alpha channels and the GIMP is still a GNU/Linux app. You might want to upgrade to the latest release client, if possible (requires > gtk2.10), as 2.4 is a vast improvement.