Has anyone found the right combo models/workflow to equal what Nano Banana Pro outputs?

I'm not a newbie and perhaps I've just been overwhelmed with so many things coming all at one ( and I'm not complaining, It seems as if every week there is a new huge model or something).
However today, I needed to first get a group photo that consisted of four images or more ; have them all into one image cohesively , then turn that into a video.
I tried Qwen 2511, and I've tried Z-image and Flux Klein, stitching the images together, but there is always something, 3 out of 4 look right or any 6 or half a dozen sort of issues that just doesn't give me the end result. So I reluctantly went to Nano Banana Pro, and albeit not perfect it came closer to the mark. However, those 14 cents and 29 cent 4K generations begin to add up.

Has anyone found a winning working combination of models and workflows that are near enough to what Nano Banana Pro can create that I may be overlooking?
Thanks.