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Would an entire army based on clear acrylic bases be weird or ok?

Would you rather see across the table from you a fully painted army all on black unfinished bases or all on clear bases?

I would prefer clear bases over unfinished black bases. I don't particularly like how clear bases look though.

I have very few miniatures based on clear bases.

The reason? Clear bases don't appear clear when you're gaming. The basic acrylic clear bases have a few serious drawbacks:

1) Can't magnetize or mark them.
2) If you need to put a rod through the base for any reason, it'll show (like on older metal miniatures)
3) The most important one? They reflect light. This means that it's often the case that "clear" bases become more obvious and distracting during the game.
4) They are naturally reflective/shiny. I haven't seen anyone use or make "matte" clear bases.

It's always a cool idea, but very rarely does it work out. I'd try it on a model or two - play some games and decide if it's a look you like. I find they normally just stand out far more than a normal base.

Instead of just clear bases, consider hitting them with a matte spray and then a tint. Some complimentary color to your main army scheme. It will look a lot better and make it seem like some effort was put into them.

 Elbows wrote:
I have very few miniatures based on clear bases.

The reason? Clear bases don't appear clear when you're gaming. The basic acrylic clear bases have a few serious drawbacks:

1) Can't magnetize or mark them.
2) If you need to put a rod through the base for any reason, it'll show (like on older metal miniatures)
3) The most important one? They reflect light. This means that it's often the case that "clear" bases become more obvious and distracting during the game.
4) They are naturally reflective/shiny. I haven't seen anyone use or make "matte" clear bases.

It's always a cool idea, but very rarely does it work out. I'd try it on a model or two - play some games and decide if it's a look you like. I find they normally just stand out far more than a normal base.

You know what if they are too shiny I think you’re right that’d be worse than plain black bases.

SW or nids ice bases?

I've seen some people do clear bases, I don't really like them but the people that did them liked them. Each to their own.

I've always found clear acrylic annoyingly eye-catching, it's often used to pretend something isn't there (like flyer bases) but the way it reflects light it seems to catch the eye more than anything.

I prefer flat black when I'm trying to hide something rather than something shiny.

But if you like clear, go for it, they're your models and you should be happy with them.

 Eldarain wrote:
I would prefer clear bases over unfinished black bases. I don't particularly like how clear bases look though.

To be honest I've never understood the disdain for black bases. I think as wargamers we've trained ourselves to think black = unfinished, but black is the perfect colour for a base when you simply want to draw attention to the model more than the thing it's mounted on.

Flying stands for model aircraft (of the non-wargaming variety) are often black, sometimes when you go to a museum you'll see things mounted on black podiums, at my university when we unveiled a new car we had it on a stand with a black sheet draped over the stand and the car sitting on top.

But in wargaming black basing is a cardinal sin.


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 Badablack wrote:
Instead of just clear bases, consider hitting them with a matte spray and then a tint. Some complimentary color to your main army scheme. It will look a lot better and make it seem like some effort was put into them.

Have you tried that yourself and got any examples? It seems like it'd create quite a weird look. Also I've found it tricky to matte varnish clear acrylic, it's very hard to get a consistent coat because any flaws get highlighted.


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 Elbows wrote:
4) They are naturally reflective/shiny. I haven't seen anyone use or make "matte" clear bases.

Matting clear bases and they cease to be clear, they end up translucent and frosty looking.

What I meant about "matte" clear bases was that I haven't seen any company produce something like that. For instance when you have posters framed - there are non-reflective options for your glass. I assume there is some way to produce non-reflective clear acrylic --- just haven't seen it done.

I could be wrong and maybe its impossible.

Oh sorry, I see what you mean. Yeah, that's not so much "matte" as anti glare or anti reflective.

I think you can buy anti reflective acrylic, I believe it's coated in something. Though it'd probably be a bit of a pain in the arse to do for bases because you'd have to cut them, flame polish the edges then coat them.

Would have to look in to it further though.

For the OP, here's the only model(s) I have using clear bases --- standard laser cut acryllic.


While it looks really good in a picture like that - you can see what we mean about reflective bases in the next picture:



While clear, they don't "disappear" into the table as often as you'd think - and far less if you're using a well lit gaming area. It's a neat concept, and I'll continue to use it for water-based stuff, but for all the minis in an army? I wouldn't bother I don't think.

Here's another picture where you can compare actual painted/based minis with the clear acrylic based arms:



personally I find the gravel/dungeon bases to "blend in" quicker than the acrylic.

Thanks elbows!

Yeah the shine and lack of real disappearing would be too much for me. Awesome for water stuff for you though! Just not for my marines

I do not like them, they typically look awful (although the sea monster above is a great use for them). Basing is really easy these days with GW's texture paints, it's really not that hard.

texture paints are ridiculously overpriced especially for a whole army

re: clear bases - up to you

I use them for my some of my RPG figures as it's a lot more important (imo) to see what terrain they're standing in (as it's usually a dungeon tile).

However, one caveat I would bring up as anyone with the bare flyer bases has probably experienced - they're slippery as f(**(*( on a mat or other surface. And give up placing them in semi precarious spots.

For that reason alone I myself wouldn't like them.