Clear Perspex gaming bases

[Chris Abbey]

 I've been gaming for 35 years now and have based literaly thousands of miniatures the traditional way, making little dioramas with sand, gravel, static grass, tufts of foliage etc.
These all look absolutely fantastic... but recently we have been producing Terra-Blocks for urban based combat in dungeons, warehouses, starships, offices etc. and I was putting together a shot for a magazine article and it suddenly struck me that the only thing ruining the shot was the beautiful diorama base that did not fit in with the terrain around it. The base looked great on grassy, rocky open spaces, but put it on stone flooring, wood flooring, sandy beach, snowscape or rocky crag and it looked completely out of place, so I came up with the idea of clear perspex bases that let whatever terrain you have placed your figure on show through. I hope you will enjoy using them as much as I do!

We have 17 varieties of clear bases covering all popular sizes and styles including round, square, rectangular and hexagonal.
We have come up with a couple of special bases: a 25mm clear round base with a cross etched on to show facings (front, flank, rear) and a 25mm round and hexagonal base that has numbers 1-6 etched around side for miniatures such as zombies that move in a random direction.



We have a photo gallery of our clear bases in action at :
http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Clear-Terra-Bases/Clear-Basing-Gallery

Full details of these products are on our website at :
http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Clear-Terra-Bases

[Daeothar]

Nice.

I especially like the top down Space Marine shot. It really shows off the strong point of the bases; from this angle, with barely any reflections, the minis really appear to be standing freely in the terrain, vastly improving the overall look.

I've long considered the same issue, ever since tabletops started to move away from simple grassy plains. I still base my minis thematically, to fit their background. But that either restricts them to playing on 'their' tabletop, or makes them look out of place on any other surface.

I like the transparent bases idea more and more, but am hesitant myself to try them out, because once you do a couple, you know you'll have to do the rest as well, throwing away years of basing artistry. And obviously, one force with and one without just doesn't do, so it might all escalate from there. It's a real risk you know...

But should I ever start a new project which will/can not mix with the others, I will strongly consider being transparent for once...

[maxxon]

They look really nice, but...

Not to rain on your parade, but moving to clear bases would mean giving up on magnetizing the bases. Plus some figures really need additional weight on the base.

Arggh! Why can't I have my cake and eat it too?

[Rabbitz]

Just started basing a load of my figures like this and am happy I made the change.

[Ironworker]

I've seen these a few times and it is definitely an attractive concept. 

[matthais-mouse]

As more of a model maker and painter I very much enjoy designing and making the bases for my miniatures....

 but if I was to be more of a gamer, I think I would run with this so that I would not have to worry about based miniatures looking odd on a different battlefield to the bases..... 

[Major_Gilbear]

It's a good idea that's been around for a good while now - hardly new or revolutionary! 

A downside is if you play on tables that have a rough texture regularly, the the perspex is reasonably likely to get scratched, and it soon starts looking tatty then. 

I did consider this basing system for a good while, and I think it's fantastic for boardgames models and such.

But for many of the games I play, the high level of terrain density and the low model count means that I have taken to putting lead weights and velour/felt on the bottoms of my models. This way, they don't tip over or slide/move on the table if the surface isn't quite level or it gets knocked. However, it also renders clear acrylic bases 100% pointless then.

[Rhelyk]

A few months ago I started basing a lot of figures on clear acrylic. I really liked the look of the 1.5mm bases, the thinner the better to make the mirror effect on the edge even harder to notice. I had very little issues with frosting, but you get a small bead of glue around the feet, although that is easy to hide with some watered down black ink. The clear acrylic has a lot of pros and cons, most of which are easy to see (HAH!), but I also discovered a few that have made me dislike the bases enough to rebase figs again with traditional basing techniques
 
- it's been mentioned, but I mention again how hard (mostly impossible) it is to magnetize figs. Not a big deal if you use foam trays, but I like to use metal cookie sheets in a box to store and transport armies. I glue rare earth magnets to the bases and that just doesn't work with clear acrylic. I also have issues with figs popping off the bases unless pinned, and the brittle acrylic can snap if you drop a fig
 
- you can't base the figs until they are fully painted. How badly this issue affects you will vary depending on your painting style, but you can't spray varnish a fig on a clear base or it'll ruin the look and you can't prime them on the base.
 
- the effect is kinda ruined by the rim of the base, which stands out quite a bit, especially on the thicker bases. But again, the thinner bases are more prone to snapping. Ideally I wanted to use my 1" circle cutter to make bases out of thin plastic sheets (like blister pack plastic), but they were only sturdy enough for plastic figs, not metal.
 
- the flat bottoms are less stable than a lipped base, and more prone to tipping over on uneven terrain. You also can't place weights under the acrylic bases,  or use strategically placed pewter bits as terrain elements to help balance the figs. I've had a lot more issues with figs tipping over and chipping during play than before.
 
- The bases get dusty and are hard to clean. This one I didn't expect but makes total sense in hindsight. You're gonna get dirt on them over time and you're gonna have to practically windex them to get em properly clean or the effect looks pretty bad, whereas dust on normal bases just looks like weathering.
 
- One HUGE factor to consider: you need to be a strong painter! A decent base adds a lot to a miniature, makes it more interesting, helps set a scene and tell a tale. I used to be a very good painter, but got lazy in the last few years and usually stick to table-top quality paintjobs for most things. A tabletop quality paintjob with a decent sand/flocked base looks fine, especially when you have a whole army. Without a proper base, I found that a table-top quality paintjob looks much worse that the same paintjob on the same figure with a mediocre traditional base. The paintjob just has to do more work to keep everything interesting looking, and I've needed to put a lot more work into each figure only to make the end result look about as good as tabletop did. No more blocking in the colors and slathering it in black or brown wash :/ Gotta highlight the highs and shade the lows
 
Overall, while I loved being able to mix infinity and Star Wars and Reaper and Warhammer and LotR and Deadzone figs altogether or use figs for multiple games, I found clear acrylic to be more problematic than it was worth. I wound up rebasing all my Nomads on the plastic bases from the Sedition Wars boardgame and am quite pleased with the change back to "real" bases. I've also has a blast using cork tile and pigments for my 40k Dark Angels Kill Team.  Using acrylic bases has a lot going for it, just be aware of what you're in for if you decide to use them!

[Chris Abbey]

Since we launched our range of Clear Perspex bases last week, we have had loads of email from gamers asking for bases for their particular system. We always like to help out with customers needs so have added the following to suit Warmachine: 30mm, 40mm, 50mm, 120mm with an etched line across center to mark front and rear arcs. We have also added 50mm and 55mm round bases to suit Infinity. Full details available here : http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Clear-Terra-Bases



The second top topic in our inbox has been how to re-base existing figures, so we have added an article to our hobby pages that goes through the process step by step. Link to re-basing article : http://wargamesbuildings.co.uk/Hobby-Pages/Pulp-Alley-28mm-Pulp-Adventure-Gaming/Rebasing-figures-onto-clear-bases