Library: Flags of the Colonial Period

[Capn Frank]

Library of Flags for the Colonial Period

The library is providing links to all the great flag designs that have been posted in the pirate forum.

Some others have been found elsewhere (main EB forum, brickshelf, ...) and put into the library.

Just post your flag designs in the pirate forum and we'll make sure it gets added to the library.

Also, check out Napflags, which is a great site for finding more flags from the Napoleonic Wars!

All flags have been backed up in the EB Pirates Album.

Decals for Lego Flags: the pictures of these flags are made for placing onto the official Lego 2 x 2 flags and 6 x 4 flags.

Flags of Specific Countries

France- wiki article

Thread containing French Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Old France used before 1789, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Bourbon France used from 1814 to 1830, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Tricolor used since 1830, by Col. Whipstick.

Great Britain- wiki article

Thread containing British Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of St. George's Cross used by the English prior to 1707, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of St. Andrew's Cross used by the Scottish prior to 1707, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the British Union used from 1606 to 1801, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the British Union used since 1801, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Royal Navy used since 1823, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Merchant Navy, by Col. Whipstick.

Netherlands- wiki article

Thread containing Dutch Flags by Col. Whipstick.

The Prince's Flag used since 1572, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Netherlands used since 1630, by Col. Whipstick.

The Geus Flag, Naval Jack, by Col. Whipstick.

Thread containing Dutch VOC Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Old Flag of the VOC used by the Dutch East India Trading Company, by Col. Whipsitck.

New Flag of the VOC used by the Dutch East India Trading Company, by Col. Whipsitck.

Portugal- wiki article

Thread containing Portuguese Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Combo Flag of the King used from 1495 to 1667, by Col. Whipstick.

Combo King John VI Flag used from 1667 to 1830, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Queen Maria used from 1830 to 1910, by Col. Whipstick.

Spain- wiki article

Thread containing Spanish Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Cross of Burgundy Flag used prior to 1556, by Col. Whipstick.

Coronela Flag used on Ships and Settlements, by Col. Whipstick.

Civil Flag of Spain used since 1785, by Col. Whipstick.

United States- wiki article

Thread containing U.S. Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Grand Union used by Rebel ships from 1775 to 1777, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Betsy Ross used from 1777 to 1795, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of 15 Stars and Stripes used from 1795 to 1818, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of 25 Stars used from 1836 to 1837, by Col. Whipstick.

Naval Jack Flag of the Confederates, by Col. Whipstick.

First Confederate Flag, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Lone Star (Texas), by Col. Whipstick.

Pirate Flags

Thread Containing Pirate Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Blackbeard, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Henry Every, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of John Rackham 'Calico Jack', by Col. Whipstick with demo by Axle.

Flag of Stede Bonnet, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Thomas Tew, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Edmund Condent, by Col. Whipstick.

First Flag of Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart), by Col. Whipstick.

Second Flag of Bartholomew Roberts (Black Bart), by Col. Whipstick.

Official Lego Pirate Flag Tutorial by Captain Cavinano, demo by Captain Cavinano.

This flag is different from the other flags listed here, in that it shows a method to transfer the Official Lego Pirate Flag design onto a cloth flag

Lego Factions

Imperial Soldiers- Brickipedia Article

Posts Containing Imperial Soldier Flags

Imperial Soldiers Flag, by Steven.

Imperial Soldiers Flag #1 (without Blue Checkers), by Horry.

Imperial Soldiers Flag #2 (without Blue Checkers), by Horry.

Personalized/Customized Flags of Eurobricks Members

Thread Containing Personalized/Customized Flags by Col. Whipstick.

Lord of Pies' Flag, by Col. Whipstick.

South Essex Flag for Sir Norman Ray, by Col. Whipstick.

Norrington's Flag, by Col. Whipstick.

Phred's Flag, by Col. Whipstick with demo1 and demo2 by Phred.

Indiana Jone's Flag for Indy 565, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of Piranha by Col. Whipstick.

Flag of the Russian Northern Fleet for Hairy Ruben, by Col. Whipstick.

Flag for Blue Dog by Col. Whipstick.

Other Flags

Nazi Flag by Col. Whipstick.

U.S.S.R. Flag by Col. Whipstick.

Folding Flags: the pictures of these flags are made for folding in half and glued together onto a flagpole

France

French Flag used since 1830, by Bonaparte with demo by Bonaparte.

Great Britain

British Flag used since 1801, by Bonaparte.

British Naval Flag used since 1823, by Bonaparte with demo by Bonaparte.

Pirates

Jolly Roger Flag, by Phred.

1:1 Scans of Canvas Flags: check out the Library of Sails for 1:1 Scans of Canvas Sails

Edited November 29, 2015 by Phred

[Bonaparte]

This is one of those extremely useful libraries!

Thanks Phred for making this one.

It's very well structured and I like the layout.

[Mister Phes]

You should give Phred a kiss for all his hard work X-D

[Bonaparte]

You should give Phred a kiss for all his hard work X-D

Good idea, here it comes P.

Move your face closer to the screen *sweet*

:-P :-P :-P

[Capn Frank]

Thanx B and Mr. Phes. :-X

P

[tedbeard]

[i can't find a discussion thread for this library so my apologies if this is the wrong place.]

Can anyone please create a blank template for just the large size wavy flag? The jagged edges on the gifs are driving me batty. *wacko*

I can play with Photoshop but someone with skill would sure make things a lot easier if they could create it in Illustrator with nice smooth lines.

Thanks.

[Capn Frank]

[i can't find a discussion thread for this library so my apologies if this is the wrong place.]

...

Yup, this thread is the index and discussion thread. *y*

Other than that, i'm not able to help with getting the needed template though.

P

[El Bucanero]

Can anyone please create a blank template for just the large size wavy flag? The jagged edges on the gifs are driving me batty. *wacko*

Col. Whipstick would be the right man to ask ;-)

[Mister Phes]

Unfortunately Col. Whipstick is somewhere between South Africa, England and Australia at the moment. It's unknown as to when he's going to resurface.

[tedbeard]

Col. Whipstick would be the right man to ask ;-)

Actually I don't think so. I got the impression from discussions about some of the flags he designed that he is using a bitmap image editor which doesn't do smooth curves. I have been playing with Photoshop to try to smooth out the jagged edges but they keep coming back when I SAVE FOR WEB as a .gif or .jpg file.

So, if anyone with CAD skills feels like a small project please jump in...

[Mister Phes]

Unfortunately Col. Whipstick is somewhere between South Africa, England and Australia at the moment. It's unknown as to when he's going to resurface.

Col. Whipstick posted yesterday in fact. So my previous statement about him going AWOL is now inaccurate!

Actually I don't think so. I got the impression from discussions about some of the flags he designed that he is using a bitmap image editor which doesn't do smooth curves.

He uses MS Paint. I've been encouraging him to use Adobe Illustrator due to it's vector capabilities but to no avail...

I have been playing with Photoshop to try to smooth out the jagged edges but they keep coming back when I SAVE FOR WEB as a .gif or .jpg file.

One day the master will come along and do them all like this...

[Admiral Blockbeard]

Wow great collection! lots of hard work done on those flags. i find it strange how the col. has done soo much work on flags yet not commented anything in this topic.

[Capn Frank]

Wow great collection! lots of hard work done on those flags. i find it strange how the col. has done soo much work on flags yet not commented anything in this topic.

Don't worry matey. ;-)

There are lots of comments on the good Colonel's flags.

If you click on bold print of each "paragraph" like i've quoted before,

you'll see lots of complements and comments. *y*

Thread containing French Flags by Col. Whipstick.

If Col. Whipstick decides to make another miscellaneous flag or someone else does, they can post their flag in this thread.

If someone plans on making A LOT of flags (like the Col.), then by all means have a thread for each group of flags.

Savy? :-$

P

[Mister Phes]

Wow great collection! lots of hard work done on those flags. i find it strange how the col. has done soo much work on flags yet not commented anything in this topic.

The Colonel's work will not be wasted. Eventually they'll be added to Classic-Pirates.com and be frontpaged and circulated in the newsletter.

Although it would be preferred if they're vectorised so as to remove the jagged edges from them. Fortunately the good Colonel is making an attempt at this but if he fails his mission then I'll guess it is up to me.

[tedbeard]

Fortunately the good Colonel is making an attempt at this but if he fails his mission then I'll guess it is up to me.

Huzzah! *sweet*

I look forward to a smooth flag template no matter who does it!

Thanks.

[Col. Whipstick]

Huzzah! *sweet*

I look forward to a smooth flag template no matter who does it!

Thanks.

Well gentlemen yes, sorry for my lack of recent participation, particularly on the matter of the flags and maps which being as I started all that I should by all rights finish it. I've been experimenting the last couple days with using Adobe Illustrator as per Phessy's instructions but the results are mixed and a little disappointing. Whilst we get nice smooth edges on almost all the flags the 'Live Trace' function generally obliterates the finer details and patterns. Basically I'm stuck in a bit of a quandry as to where to go on this one. It would be ideal to be able to smooth just the outside edges of the ripple flags whilst keeping the strict bitmap construction of the details on the flag but I'm very limited in the way of graphic design. I'll have to post some comparative examples explaining the problem and see what people think. We will find a solution to this!

[Mister Phes]

Ok, I'm not going to create a complete tutorial right now because that'll take hours. So here's a few steps to get anyone who wants (and anyone currently using MS Paint should) to learn Illustrator CS3. Let me know if you're using another version.

You'll probably find it helpful to look at the Illustrator file I was modifying.

Here is what I started with.

Here is what I finished with.

From left to right we have have the Tools palette, the Layers Palette, the Work Area and the Color changer Palette.

If you don't see all these palettes do the following.

Tools: in the pull down menus go to Window -> Tools

Layers: Press F7. If it doesn't appear press F7 again.

Color: Press F6. If it doesn't appear press F6 again.

Look at the layer palette

You'll see I've broken this flag up into layers.

1 layer to house everything called Flag of Old France

1 sub-layer for the Border

1 sub-layer for the Flag Material

1 sub-layer for the Fleur de Lis containing 3 sub-layers for each individual Fleur de Lis. I.e. Fleur de Lis 1, Fleur de Lis 2 & Fleur de Lis 3.

At the bottom of the Layer Palette are a row of buttons. Hover the cursor over them for a few sections and a Tool Tip will appear to tell you what it does. DO THIS IMMEDIATELY.

If the cursor appears disabled (I.e. a circle with a diagonal line through it) you must select a layer to enable it.

Simple Task 1 - Duplicate Flag

To do so:

1) We need to create a new layer:

To do so click on the Flag of Old France layer then click the Create New Layer button.

A new layer should appear called Layer 3 (or whatever number layer you're upto)

Double click on that layer and the Layer Options dialog should appear.

Name your layer Test Flag

2) We need to copy and paste the contents of Flag of Old France into Test Flag

In the Layers Palette, click the circle to the right of Flag of Old France

What this does is select EVERYTHING (all objects and sub-layers) that isn't locked in the Flag of Old France layer.

Now Copy. I.e. CTRL C or Edit -> Copy.

Then click Test Flag and then Paste. I.e CTRL V or Edit -> Paste.

You should see an exact duplicate of Flag of Old France slightly offset the original.

Open up the layers within Test Flag by clicking on the triangle next to it.

You'll notice the sub-layers are gone, but never mind as it's not important to this exercise. You can figure out how to add them yourself. It's simple. Create sub-layers using the Create Sub-Layer button and then drag layers into them.

Simple Task 2 - Change the Flag Colour

1) Lets change the Fill Colour of the Flag Material in the Test Flag Layer.

Select the Flag Material by either clicking on it directly in the Work Area or go to the Layer Palette and click upon the circle to the right of Flag Material.

Now go to the Color Palette and select a different colour, like red.

MAKE SURE it's the Fill Colour you're changing. You may need to select the Fill Square first by simply clicking on it.

Your Flag Material should be a different colour

2) Lets change the Outline Colour of the Flag Material in the Test Flag Layer.

The Flag Material Layer should still be selected, if not repeat above steps.

On the Color Palette first click on the Outline Square to bring it to the front. The Outline Square is the one with the smaller inner square.

Now choose a different colour, like Black.

Your Flag Material should now have an outline around it.

Simple Task 3 - Reposition the Fleur de Lis

1) Let's make the middle Fleur de Lis invisible:

Look at the Layer Palette

Click on the Eye in the Fleur de Lis 2 layer. The layer and eye should disappear, leaving an empty box where the eye. To make the layer visible again simply click the empty box, but for the purposes of that exercise don't do that.

2) Let's reposition the remaining Fleur de Lis:

Select Fleur de Lis 1 (you should know how to do this by now)

Holding down the left mouse button drag Fleur de Lis 1 where you want to position. For the sake of this exercise move it to the top left.

Now do the same with Fleur de Lis 1 and move it to the bottom right.

3) Let's add two more Fleur de Lis:

Select the Fluer de Lis of your choice, copy and paste (make sure the test Flag Layer is selected before you paste)

Drag it to the bottom left.

Do the same again and move the new Fleur de Lis to the top right.

You'll notice the new Fleur de Lis layers have the same name as the layer you copied them from.

They can be easily renamed. Instructions for that are earlier in this lesson.

TIP: Always give your layers meaningful names because it's much faster to find a particular object.

What you should have now is this:

To get you started

If you want to create flags from scratch then you'll obviously need to know how to create new shapes.

To do so click on the Rectangle Tool

If you want to select a different shape then hold down the cursor over the Rectangle Tool and a menu of shapes will appear.

Ok, this will do for now. If it would be really helpful to others I'll create a more in depth Illustrator Tutorial Series demonstrating how to use the program from start to finish.

[Captain Zuloo]

Thanks. I havn't had chance to use these yet, but hey. I'm sure I will some day.

Regards, Captain Zuloo :-D

[Shadows]

I've been experimenting the last couple days with using Adobe Illustrator as per Phessy's instructions but the results are mixed and a little disappointing. Whilst we get nice smooth edges on almost all the flags the 'Live Trace' function generally obliterates the finer details and patterns. Basically I'm stuck in a bit of a quandry as to where to go on this one. It would be ideal to be able to smooth just the outside edges of the ripple flags whilst keeping the strict bitmap construction of the details on the flag but I'm very limited in the way of graphic design.

Personally, I don't believe in smoothed edges, I just use a much higher print resolution and it makes up the difference.

I'm working on a Castle flag (that's why I came here, looking for the right print size for the 2x2 and 6x4 flags) based on shield designs. To compensate for smoothing, I do decals at 600dpi. On your screen, it will look a little jagged in spots, but in print, it's as smooth as can be, and easier to manipulate because you aren't dealing with all those in-between colours where the smoothing occurs.

As examples, here is a shield, a variation on an official Pirate torso, and a custom back to that torso:

Because of the increased resolution, I can get more fine detail in, without the mess that results from a lot of smoothing. It seems like a suitable solution to me, plus the end result prints more like the real thing. For some reason, vectors end up looking cartoon-y to me.

[Capn Frank]

Actually, the design of the flag is from this one��

If you want to make tis flag too, please see below...

First,

Put the plastic flag under the paper and copy the image on the paper by using a pencil.

Then,

Use a maker(like that one I was using)to draw an overlap image on the image that used penicl to draw.

Next,

Use a copy machine to copy the finnished product for two times.(Because there has two sides)

Finally,

Stick them onto a cloth by using glue.(I recommend you to use white glue)

I've added this flag to the this Index.

I had to make a note about the flag however because it's not a decal, just a method to make a flag.

It is the same size as the official lego flags and could be used as a decal on a blank lego flag.

Thanx Captain Cavinano

[Norrington]

While looking for Bonaparte's British naval ensign, it seems that the links to all of Bonapartes flags are broken.

[Capn Frank]

While looking for Bonaparte's British naval ensign, it seems that the links to all of Bonapartes flags are broken.

maj.com changed to majhost.com

(I have NO IDEA why they would want to do that! )

Links are fixed and should work now.

Thanx for informing me of this Norrington.