Medieval Flags and Norman Foot

I finished up some Conquest Games Norman foot (with the addition of some Norman command figures by Crusader Miniatures to give me three full elements of 16 figures) recently, but couldn't consider them completely finished until I figured out how to handle their command banner.

I've got a lot in store for these Normans. I'm hoping to use them for dark age battles against vikings in Saga, big crusades era battles against muslim enemies or in their Italian holdings with Hail Caesar or Too the Strongest, and I'm even hoping to use them as Starks for some Lion Rampant "Game of Thrones" battles.  Sticking with just one banner that would be appropriate for all those theaters wasn't going to cut it, so I cribbed an idea from James Roach and created an interchangeable flag.

I experimented with a variety of different brass tubes, pins and plastic tubes before settling on a system that worked for me. The portion held in the figure's hand is 1/16 brass tube. I cut another length the height of the flag, and then glued a metal wire spear length inside it.

I removed the spear's point and glued it on the other end of this 'upper' portion. After painting both halves spear shaft wood tones I wrapped and glued the flag itself around the upper portion.

I used a crusades era flag from Little Big Man to test the idea out. It's ok, but I also picked up some sample flags at Historicon from Rick O'Brien, "The Flag Dude". I replaced a medieval banner that I had printed out myself with a Flag Dude version, and it blows my humble effort away.

My home printed paper flag is on the left, The Flag Dude's version is on the right

The colors are richer, the animation more pronounced and overall it simply "pops" in a way that my homemade version doesn't. I had some specific sizing requests for this banner and Rick was highly accommodating too. I'm planning on picking up several flags from him just for my Norman foot, plus all my other medievals because they just look so slick. Looking forward to getting these guys on the table. With fancy flags like these, they can't lose! (right?)