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Col. Whipstick

British Flags for your creations!

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Right guys, after much back and forth between myself and Lord of Pies I think I've managed to produce some flags of the correct size. These flags are for you to print out and stick to the existing official white plastic flag pieces of Lego Pirates. They should prove ideal for those wanting to make their MOC's a distinctive nationality or organisation rather than the traditional Soldiers, Imperial Guards or Pirates.

It will take some time to produce a large library of the flags which I'm hoping someone will be kind enough to index but for now I've rendered a series of British flags which will soon be followed by Dutch, French etc.

Now I want to point out that obviously the graphic quality is limited being as I used MSPaint and added to this most flags are not condusive to the size of the official lego flags so there will be some shortfalls. All I can suggest is that you tweek the designs as you see fit after printing. The Union Jack for example is designed at a ratio of 1:2 and it was hell getting it to look correct on a base with a ratio more like 2:3. Anyway, without further adieu here are you flags, please print them, try them out, play around and let me know how they've worked out and where adjustments need to be made. I have made two design options per flag, one straight and one of the flag in motion. I realise that the design on the later of these two is static and ideally that too should be in motion but Lego themselves have not done that if you examine their flags closely and it would take valuable time for me to correct this that I'd rather use on new flags.

The history of these flags is rather self explanatory but should you need any further information, go here:

Wikipedia Link

lego_english_flag.gif

lego_scottish_flag.gif

lego_old_union_jack_flag.gif

lego_new_union_jack_flag.gif

lego_royal_navy_flag.gif

lego_merchant_navy_flag.gif

Discussion is welcome here as I will open seperate threads for different groups of flags as and when they are appropriate, there is many to be made. I have tried to show when and how these flags are appropriate but there is many occasion of cross over. Hope you all enjoy these. :-D

Edited by Col. Whipstick

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Nice! Maybe i'll use them if i gonna make something British.

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Well there are alternatives... The reason I've rendered a thick coloured boundary for the flag is because that immitates what lego themselves have done, however one can simply change the outline to say a light grey and it won't stand out as much or print the strictly rectangular flag. Or, with the use of a pen in the appropriate colour - smooth out the lines.

Or another alternative is to load the image into Illustrator, hit the "Live Trace" button and WHAMMO!!! Problem taken care of...

britishflag.gif

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Or another alternative is to load the image into Illustrator, hit the "Live Trace" button and WHAMMO!!! Problem taken care of...

britishflag.gif

Cool beans, what programme is that though Mr Phes? If this stuff gets indexed perhaps you could provide something of a tutorial for that? Impressed that my basic little flag came out looking like that, how does it fit to the white lego ones?

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The program is called Adobe Illustrator.

There's not really anything to tutorial. Load image in Illustrator, press "Live Trace" button. The end.

Really it would be easier if the flags were designed in Illustrator to begin with. Failing that someone with Illustrator could convert them and replace your images.

I'd do it myself but my ever growing task list for the Pirate forum would prevent me from keeping up with every flag designed.

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Very nice! I am using some Already for my MOCS.

Our many messages to one another paid off.

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Am already working on the French flags seeing as they will be the next to scream the loudest...

Will see about downloading Adobe Illustrator Mr Phes so long it doesn't alter the size of the images. In time I may add flags of individual British colonies or companies etc to this thread.

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Hmm, I might try a jolly roger and add it here.

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The colors of the ensigns were not to determine whether the ships were merchant or military vessels at the time !!!

The color of the ensign determined the squadrons of the royal navy, red for the 1st, under command of the highest admiral, then white, then blue.

Usually a navy had three squadrons (thus, historically, the ranks : admiral, vice admiral, rear admiral)

The distinction between military (white ensign), merchant (red ensign - chosen because it was the most known overseas) and vessels belonging to the state but not military ships (blue ensign) was made in the 20th century if i'm not mistaken. (edit : I checked, it was in 1864 in fact).

Anyway such informations are easy to find. Type red, white or blue ensign on Wikipedia for example.

I once studied vexillology, that's very handy to determine the period depicted in a painting (except if the painter made an error).

Edited by gui45

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The colors of the ensigns were not to determine whether the ships were merchant or military vessels at the time !!!

The color of the ensign determined the squadrons of the royal navy, red for the 1st, under command of the highest admiral, then white, then blue.

Usually a navy had three squadrons (thus, historically, the ranks : admiral, vice admiral, rear admiral)

The distinction between military (white ensign), merchant (red ensign - chosen because it was the most known overseas) and vessels belonging to the state but not military ships (blue ensign) was made in the 20th century if i'm not mistaken. (edit : I checked, it was in 1864 in fact).

Anyway such informations are easy to find. Type red, white or blue ensign on Wikipedia for example.

I once studied vexillology, that's very handy to determine the period depicted in a painting (except if the painter made an error).

Thank you for the information. Wikipedia was very vague about the red ensign, I realise it is only used to distinguish the Merchant fleet from WWI onwards but also had a feeling it was flown prior to this, your explanation seems to help. Anyway as I've said in the prefixed of these flags my descriptions are only vague because it's very hard to isolate the precise use of the flags from what information I have but I am giving rough ideas. For the most part I am simply making the flags for people to use as they see fit.

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The program is called Adobe Illustrator.

There's not really anything to tutorial. Load image in Illustrator, press "Live Trace" button. The end.

Really it would be easier if the flags were designed in Illustrator to begin with. Failing that someone with Illustrator could convert them and replace your images.

I'd do it myself but my ever growing task list for the Pirate forum would prevent me from keeping up with every flag designed.

If you could tell me what version of illustrator you use and where the "Live Trace button" is, I'd gladly do it.

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If you could tell me what version of illustrator you use and where the "Live Trace button" is, I'd gladly do it.

I'm trying to download the program to my external hardrive and will try run it from there. We should know by tomorrow if I've been successful otherwise I will gladly take you up on that offer. Mr Phes is best to ask about the technicalities.

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