See what I did there?

Nevermind. I’m a bit slow too. Like the time it has taken me to try out for myself the wonders of transparent basing. Many of us spend hours creating lovely textured and decorated bases to accompany our little painted gems. Personally I’ve always been a ‘less is less’ type of guy when it comes to basing. Keep it simple, neutral colours and focus on the mini. If possible blend in with the ‘expected’ playing surface (in my case the same palette for all bases and terrain bases).

These new(ish) fangled acrylic bases do away with the need for all of the above. You’ll have seen it done to great effect many times already but it’s taken me this long to give it a go myself.

Now, there is NO way I am going to rebase my entire collection. Tim Mc was right to point out that the benefits are far better had by sci fi settings than say historical or fantasy (where the variables of terrain type are larger, potentially). As good a starting place as any.

With that in mind – and coinciding with a foray in to Rogue Stars (28 and 15mm) – and coinciding with having  a few old and stripped down minis ready to paint – and coinciding with a Heroclix repaint experiment  – and coinciding with discovering a few 15mm’s didn’t have magnetically attractive washer bases – I thought I’d give it a bash.

(Negative note: Clearly acrylic bases have no magnetic or magnetically attracting properties – so a reliance on either for transport or movement trays becomes defunct – obviously).

First up, the 15s. I painted these guys a while back but when I was looking them out to take to a battle it transpired the washers I’d used were not ferrous. So I was going to have to replace them. I thought I’d try the transparent bases instead.

Forgive the indulgence but I’ve taken new shots (for Before and After) as the original post they were pretty ropey. FYI they are “15mm PNHE Cyborg Agents — Prohibited Non-Human Eradication” as the Khurasan site does not make finding specific models easy at all.

Before:and After:With some Assault Publishing/Oddzial Osmy minis on normal bases.

And most importantly, both base types on a textured/patterned playing surface. See the point?

And the bigger boys. 28mm for an outing as a Rogue Stars crew.

An old Rogue Trader pirate that needed a paint touchup. An equally old Games Workshop Imperial Guard Beastman (I think). Again, extensive touchup.
A 28mm Palansi from Cobalt available from Black Hat

And for a bit of fun and pulp culture, a 28mm Indy Heroclix Strontium Dog repaint

And the happy group shot.Well that’s my take on transparent bases and the handful of minis that got me through the first trial. Effective and ultimately a time saving alternative to traditional basing. I’ll be rolling out some more in the future and may even retrofit a few for ‘cohesive’ crew basing.