"* Who would you buy flags from???" Topic

In follow-up to a past post asking about flags, I got a few leds. My question is of the folks listed below, who would you prefer to buy 25/28mm A.W.I. flags from and why?

Choices are:

* Vaubanner Graphics?

* Flags of War?

* G.M.B.?

* Flag Dude?

Cost is important, but not the issue. I am looking for really nicely printed flags. I can fold them myself--so this is not an issue.

Thanks for your time and input!
Tom Semian
Avalon, Pa. 15202

I really like Vaubanner Graphics.
They're nicely printed, the ink doesn't run. On good paper you can fold along the wire.

If you can afford Flag Dude, then I would go with him.

GMB flags are little works of art and I've always found the service to be very good.

The Flag Dude. No question about it.

Flag Dude. Once I found him, only flags I buy.

Flag Dude.

I have flags from both GMB and the Flag dude. Both are lovely.

Flag Dude can't be bothered with my e-mails so he's out. I really like GMB flags. They are quick with orders and the flags are great. I've heard lots of good things about Vaubanner too, though I haven't used them-- yet

Flag dude would be my choice

Flag Dude makes great flags; the problem is getting him to sell them to you.

GMB makes very nice flags, and you can buy them when you want to.

I have not seen the others in person.

I would second, third, fourth, etc… with Flag Dude. Yes, we all know he's a little hard to get ahold of. I've been led to believe his real job involves a lot of travel, which has resulted in a lag time between query and response ( recently he was the victim of a motorcycle accident which laid him out even more), BUT, one of the true hidden beauty's of his product, beyond the flag itself is that it already comes with finials and tassels attached! Cut the wire down to your desired size of flag pole, a little paint, and you are ready to move out in a sharp, military manner. Free advice and just about worth it!

Tchuss!

Mike

Another vote for the Flag Dude.

GMB – really beautiful flags and huge variety. Grahame provides great service as well, and each Christmas, an offer.

Does GMB currently have a U.S. distributor, or must they be ordered from the United Kingdom?

GMB hands down.

Don

Flag Dude can't be bothered with any e-mails so I agree with KSmyth. I have sent Flag Dude several e mails over the last 6 months and just get a canned reply that he will get back to me. If you catch him at a convention and he has what you want he makes great flags.
Vaubanner and Flags of War make great flags but dont do any custom work.

I no longer buy flags.

With a little effort you can make flags the equal & even superior to bought ones.

The internet has free images of a majority of historical flags. Note some may benefit by a bit of photoshopping to enhance colours etc. You can also customise the size to fit your taste/size of the flagbearer etc

Check these SYW ones out for example:
link

The next step is to own a laser colour printer worth tens of thousands of dollars……or, failing this 87))…..
save your efforts on a USB, take to a Print Shop (with one of those expensive printers), ask for their best quality printer paper & for a surprisingly small amount, produce a page with 20 or so high quality flags.

Very nice!

My experience with The Flag Dude was similar – I feel if I hadn't actually called him, I never would have received my order. Nice flags, but I won't go through that again.

GMB are nice, though a little pricey and somewhat large.

Lately I've been using maverick-models.com

They have a good selection, the guy who runs it (Stuart IIRC), is responsive, and will typically ask you what size you actually want – so if you're doing a unit of smaller 25's, you can get slightly smaller flags. They offer plain and "effects" which I believe are supposed to simulate wrinkles/waves, and paper, including self adhesive (I have not tried) and "material", which is kind of cloth-like.

First choice is Flag Dude, then GMB.

I have been trying to email Rick but his emails keep bouncing back. Not a good sign. Was he at Cold Wars?

The Flag Dude was at CW. Have had problems getting a hold of him via email lately, but his phone number is on the web site. Have called and talked to him when email wasn't working. For ease of use, I would go with the Fag Dude. See CarasML comments above.

Have some GMB flags and they are very nice looking.

My experience with Flag Dude was similar to KSmyth, many e-mails unanswered, I phoned, left messages. Nothing.

Vaubanner are nice but tend to be smaller than GMB.
GMB are largish for the scale, but I like that. Thus Vaubanner are more "real" in size.
Quality, they are both very good. Vaubanner are less expensive.
Service, both are top notch.

If I can get custom flags from Maverick then I am done with Flag Dude. Too bad because he used to send me my flags before I wrote the check. Good products but that's not enough. Too many choices out there.

Flag Dude all the way; all of my ACW and Napoleonic flags are his and they are spectacular.

And I've never had a problem getting ahold of him or getting a reply from him.

He's one of the nicest guys I've met in this hobby (which is saying something as I've met boatloads of nice guys in this hobby, it really is a great hobby populated with some outstanding people).

Sorry if anyone has had issues in getting ahold of him or getting replies from him, he's aces in my book.

He is a great to chat with at the cons. 95% of my flags for AWI are from Flag Dude.

I have stocked in 15mm American Revolution from a number of companies including: Old Glory 15s, Stone Mountain Minis., Washington's Wars, Minifig, Frontier, Musket and a few more.

In 28mm most folks are leaning toward plastic which is good if you plan to never sale them but may be a disappointment is you might want to sale them.

GMB…No doubt about it..Great art.!

Maverick are by far the best overall IMHO. GMB good but for 18th C a little limited. Ditto Flags of War. Vaubaner are nice but a tad small for my taste. Glad Dude are very nice but hard to get hold of.

Maverick get my vote

I make my own.

Otto

Flag Dude is great but I also go to this website. Nice flags and they are free.

I did leave them a tip via paypal.

warflag.com

I thought there were some problems with warflags authenticity?

There are several good suppliers of flags.
I must admit I sometimes create my own flags, but sometimes You do need a specialist.
For me that is Maverick, because of his aibility to deliver variable sizes and his preparedness to design flags on demand for a reasonable price.

Now GMB is the only game in town, for me anyway. I now buy all my flags from GMB.

Flag Dude is just too unreliable.

I'm doing Cowpens right now, have a ton from Cotton Jim, and a few from Flags of War. Flags of War are bigger, and Cotton Jim are less pretty, but both are highly usable.