American Revolution Swoppet conversions at the Plastic Warrior Show 2025

 Dennis Donovan brought along more of his conversions for the American War of Independence, or as some would term it the American Revolutionary War, either way they are stunning figures and he has garnered a well earned reputation for them over the years.

When Dennis first started making his cavalry conversions he used bodies and heads from original Britains Swoppet figures with legs and horses from Helmet kits.  

Over time the Swoppet parts became harder to source so he had a mould made to produce the basic torso in plastic while continuing to use Helmet parts and heads, the result is a range of mounted figures that perfectly compliment the original Britains foot models.

 Britains Swoppet figures inevitably lose their hats and weapons so these ones above have had their missing original parts replaced or remodelled with Miliput.

  Early on I bought several units of Dennis' cavalry conversions when I was building up wargame armies for the period, and some are shown in earlier posts on here, just wish I had the space to get some more!

Britains American War of Independance Swoppets.

 This past year I embarked upon a review of how I store and display the unruly mass of toy soldiers accumulated in a largely haphazard way over the past six plus decades.  

Everything is being separated out between collectables and figures for wargaming, the former to stand safely on a shelf gathering dust and looking pretty, the latter boxed securely in their units and ranks ready to be deployed on the tabletop at a moments notice.

I started picking up Britains and Timpo American War of Independence Swoppets with the intention of using them for wargaming, back then they were the only figures available for the period, but they were hard to find and by the time I'd acquire enough they were getting too brittle and delicate for the amount of handling involved.  I aught to let them all go but I don't feel quite ready for that yet.

The building in the background is the tinplate "Revolutionary War Tavern" made in America by Louis Marx, the mounted figure of George Washington to the front left of it is an old composition piece made by Elastolin.

In amongst the Britains and Timpo Swoppet AWI are a smattering of figures from other manufacturers such as: Shell Liberty Men of '76, Louis Marx Warriors of the World, A Call to Arms, Res Plastics for Kinder Eggs, Awesome Toys, Casualties of War, Airfix, and a couple of white metal models.

The building shown here is the Louis Marx tinplate "Civil War Mansion" from their "Battle of the Blue and Gray" playset.

Native American allies are provided by Mohicans from Britains Herald range and Charbens.

 These figures have all spent far too long languishing in boxes so it was nice to get them out and put on display where I can appreciate them a bit more.