Some advice on Saxon and Romano British Standards, banners etc

[dadlamassu]

I have been asked to paint up some Saxons and Romano-British for a friend at the club.  It is not a period I know much about other than the King Arthur tales and several novels including Bernard Cornwell's trilogy.  I am quite content with creating the colour schemes and "units".  However, when I look on the web and here for inspiration for standards, banners, vexilla etc I see a wide variety of units carrying vexilla, dragons, flags and other pennants.  From my memory of Bernard Cornwell his "Saxons" and some others (?) have skulls, flayed skins and animal tails as banners.

So for the Romano-British I am thinking of a mix of vexilla and dragons with maybe a flag or two (Arthur's bear or the King's Dragon).  On the other hand the Saxons are giving me a problem as to whether I should have flags/banners, skull topped totems or something else.

Your thoughts are most appreciated.

BTW most figures will be plastics with a few metals for characters.  I will be using our rules which allow a bit of magic and also need each mounted figure to have a foot equivalent.

[gostgost]

Horsa,has got to have a banner, with a horse on!

[Arlequín]

I would expect more use of zoomorphic totems for Angles and Saxons at that time; horse skull with or without skin, or horse tails. Wolf, bear, or boar are alternatives, as would be a sun disk. Draco type standards perhaps, or crude facsimiles of other Roman types. I've no basis for any of this, but anything else feels wrong to me.

Likewise Dracos and vexillia seem right for Romano-Britons, or even an ornate spear or signi trailing ribbons for sub-units. Self-identification as 'Roman' appears to have been a thing, so you'd perhaps expect a display of Romanitas here.

I'd imagine more anachronistic 'Celts' would not be so different to the Germans, apart from use of triskelion-type imagery and severed heads.

I'm not sure flags were in use in the 6th Century, but who knows?

I suppose you'd have to ask the question "What is the standard's purpose?". Rallying point? Religious symbol? Inducement to fear?

[arget8]

Little Big Men Studios might be a good place to start. His Arthurian and Saxon banners are not too far off what Cornwell describes in the books.

[dadlamassu]

Thanks for the ideas - I quite like the idea of having skulls and similat devices but I am having difficulty finding a suitable Bull/Aurochs skull.
I have found these:
https://elementgames.co.uk/wargames-and-miniatures/sci-fi-miniatures-games/kromlech/basing-kits/animal-skulls-and-bones-11-tba?d=22&gclid=EAIaIQobChMI0vndgpqE3wIVFOh3Ch0Kww83EAQYASABEgJ7M_D_BwE


https://www.tabletopgamingnews.com/tabletop-art-28mm-animal-skulls-now-available


Any others?