Col. Whipstick

Well putting them in an index was kinda the reason I did them, suggested it in my first post on the subject. There's one little complication, I've already had a few EB members make comments who aren't really Pirate people and though that particular set of flags runs from around 1400 - 1900 thus suiting us the most, I'm sure the castle and town people would like some as appropriate. Given sufficient time I may make flags more feudal or contemporary so should those be indexed here? Then again do I want non-pirate people buying up all the lego pirate flags for non pirate era MOC's?

Have tried downloading it 3 times this evening without success, keeps finding errors. I will be getting a new laptop soonish as this is antique, perhaps there's some problem with the system requirements. Mr Tiber has kindly offered to do the conversions if you can get in touch with him though is just a short term answer and when I am technically capable I can see more flags right through. Everyone seems to be in agreement, it has the most character, pity that by that stage the Portuguese empire was in decline so it's not the ideal one for the 'Golden Age' Portuguese sets but then one can always cheat and use it. And as you are Portuguese Imperial Scouts I expect to see these flags in use sometime soon from you :D

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.

Guy's, I'm looking into it... I have a problem with disk space at the moment and can't download any of these programs or free up disk space at the moment but I will solve this as soon as I can, otherwise the option is open for another to try this.

Trust me, I have loads of flags planned but they are very time consuming and my priority was getting the big five done. I need to look into fixing the edges on these first and thereafter I'll get to work on more.

Ah, well it's nice if someone who's Portuguese is happy. I notice you are relatively new to Eurobricks, what type of lego are you interested in, the pirates forum is a great place for Portuguese representation as it's a little too English, French and Dutch here.

I did actually manage to finish these off yesterday but decided not to post them so people could firstly appreciate the Spanish flags. Each flag has presented it's own problems and the Portuguese ones are no exception. Whilst one doesn't have a ratio problem adapting these to lego the detail of the Portuguese coat of arms, always present on the nation's flag is highly detailed and it's been ages playing around to get the maximum detail into a small and confined programme whilst still hopefully having the coat of arms simple enough to look good and be printer friendly. Also this is probably the one of the big five where I haven't really produced what is the contemporary flag of Portugal. The red and green flag we all know only dates back to 1911 so really isn't present during Portugal's colonial history though the shield has remained a part of the design for a long long time. The flag has changed in a minor capacity many times during the individual reigns of Portugal's king's and queens and this presented the problem of exactly which flags to chose as there are several. I've picked three which are about as different from each other as they get and span the largest time period but you may find because of design purposes that I have fused one or two of the original flags into the design of one of mine. Nonetheless I feel content that we have flags to use with lego Armada forces and distinguish them from the Spanish. I think with the addition of these flags people will be more tempted to print out the different torsos and now have the ideal way to represent individual nations. For more history on the flags of Portugal visit: Flags of Portugal (wikipedia)

As I've said before, I don't ever have my lego with me, that's the reason I said it, added to that what's the point of me going to all this work just to use markers.

Really frustrating that I can't print these out and see how if they fit myself...

I suppose it's okay for small children, given that's it's target market but I can't help but look at that thing and feel it's an insult to the Lego Pirates System.

I've always found the Spanish flags particularly attractive and it's only a shame that on this forum few will be motivated to produce Spanish and Portuguese caravels and forts but for those that do I'm pleased to bring you these flags. Once again I'm going to re-iterate because some critics of my flags don't seem to be listening. First and foremost these flags are not intended to be highly accurate, the history and nature of vexillogy is complex enough. These flags are meant to spice up lego models and the descriptions I've applied are only to help give an idea but if people are going to be obsessed about the details go to wikipedia to see if you are using them accurately. Personally I'm just interested in seeing some cool MOC's with some character. I am honestly getting annoyed given the endless hours of work I've done to only receive criticism, if you're unhappy about the flags, make them yourselves, obviously this only concerns certain members. I hope everyone else enjos them enough for me to continue making more. Right, the three Spanish flags I've nominated are firstly The Cross of Burgundy, yes Burgundy which was an independent kingdom for the longest time until it eventually became a region of France. However the cross of Burgundy has become an important image in the history of Spain and it was used extensively in the New World. Next up is the Coronela flag which seems to reffer to some military purpose and if I get this right, it's a revised version which was authorised by Philip II of Spain, Spain's best known protagonist king, like say Louis XIV for France. I like the flag because the addition of the yellow makes it feel more Spanish and one can see the evolution to out last flag. The civil flag of Spain has not changed in 1785 and when one isn't able to produce the complex coat of arms on the national flag this flag is easy to produce. So here are your Spanish flags folks... For more history click here... Flag of Spain (Wikipedia)

It was only last week I had a thread going here to discuss colonies and settlements of the smaller European nations as we tend to focus on the big 5 - England/Great Britain, France, Holland, Spain and Portugal. I'll have to remember this New Sweden, though from the history you've offered it was overtaken by the Dutch who were overtaken by the British. Also seem to remember making a statement about a New Stockholm in one of the threads... how coincidental. Will have to see if I can make some Swedish flags for you if you are intending on making uniquely Swedish models.

The red lion of southern Holland on a yellow background looks terribly close to the Feudal flag and coat of arms for Scotland... wait until you see the Spanish flags, everybody borrowed the Cross of Burgundy from each other.

No need to apologise, we don't all have a thousand bricks and pieces for our MOC's. It's easy to do fantastic models when one has all the items but personally I like to see what can be done with the base models and very few extra pieces because to me they become 'Everyman MOC's', anyone can make them and enjoy them. It shows originality not at the gunpoint of expense. Welcome to the forum anyway, so where is New Sweden?

Then that's the one I'll do or perhaps both, I feel the VOC must be old enough that it was flown on the Orange falg. In truth I've never really liked the newer Dutch flag, there's nothing destinctive about it, looks just too French or yet another red, white and blue... the orange was unique and one always associates the Dutch with orange. Maybe it's just because for the first 14 years of my life that was roughly the flag I saw growing up in SA that it wasn't the ideal design for the country at all.

Yep... read my initial post. My main question is whether the VOC logo should be on the orange or red flag? That's MSPaint, trust me, spent hours getting some of these to look even that good but by running them through Adobe Illustrator the pixels should smooth out, my problem at the moment is I have zero disk space to download the program but sooner or later when I've finished the first large batch I'll get 'round to it.

Right, by overwhelming popular demand here are the Dutch flags and I'm hoping to hear from a couple Dutch members as to the history and accuracy of these because my own knowledge and material is limited. Obviously the Prince's flag is well known to me coming from South Africa where the old flag was a variant of this as apparently is the flag of New York in refference to when it was New Amsterdam. This seems the first truly applicable flag for independent Holland after they told the Spanish to go jump. Now, the newer flag of the Netherlands which features a darker blue and red was only approved very recently - 1937, however the red seems to have replaced the orange from 1630 onwards as I understand it, mostly because the Orange was hard to see out at sea. The third addition I've added in is the 'Geus' or Dutch naval jack which I know nothing about, when it was created or used but I imagine it's very modern and probably not likely to be used in MOC's though it's an attractive flag all the same. At some point I will create a VOC variation of the Prince's flag but that will have to wait as the Dutch and Portugese are the priority now for those few and far between Armada enthusiasts. For refference please visit: Dutch Flags 1 Dutch Flags 2

Indeed, how confusing... One wonders why the frogs dropped the Ill de France, perhaps there was a shortage of blue dye. X-D

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.

I should be able to get onto the Dutch flags today, sadly this forum doesn't have much in the way of Portuguese or Spanish members so they will be last for not screaming so loudly.

Yes but I decided the plain white wasn't worth developing as I doubted anyone would use it. Thank you for adding history to this thread. :-)

Okay folks, here are the French flags to follow the British ones which I'm hoping to see on your MOC's. At present I cannot alter the flags jagged lines and if this is a problem for you consult the British flag thread on how to amend these according to Mr Phes. One of the problems having done all these flags is unlike today national flags don't carry the same officiality of use in the past and very often these flags are in use at the same time or owing to changes in political power these flags are frequently swapped. The French flags in particular are difficult to use with historical accuracy. Effectively the Ill-de-France flag - the blue one is the Medieval flag of France but was still in use for the colonies while the main national flag changed. The official flag of France and also her naval ensign prior to the French revolution seems to have been a plain solid white flag which obviously would look pointless to render or on anyone's model. During the French revolution started in 1789, the Tri-colour is introduced but it is removed when the Bourbons seize power once more after the final defeat of Napolean. For a brief period the Bourbon styled flag is in use, a call back to the old plain white flag but this time with numerous gold fluer-de-les. In 1830 the Tricolour is reintroduced and whilst that too has been tweaked it remains the one we all recognise. For a more in depth history on these flags, please visit: Wikipedia Link

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.

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?

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 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