How to Display an Army You Haven't Finished Painting

‘I'll set up a proper display when the army's finished.’ It is the most common sentence in this hobby and it describes an event that never arrives — because a finished army is immediately followed by a new box. Meanwhile a hundred well-painted models sit in foam, unseen. The fix is to stop treating display as a reward for completion and start treating it as part of the process.

Why Waiting Is the Wrong Strategy

There is a practical argument and a motivational one. Practically, models in foam are models you never look at, which means you never notice the squad that needs basing finished or the two models missing a highlight. Displayed models get looked at daily, and problems surface.

Motivationally, the effect is stronger. A visible, obviously incomplete display creates a small, specific, achievable next job — fill that gap — in a way that a foam tray full of grey plastic never does. Most people find the backlog easier to attack when the finished work is in front of them as evidence that the process works. It is the same principle behind the approaches in our guide to clearing a painting backlog.

The Three-Zone Layout

The trick is to make incompleteness look deliberate. Split the display into three areas and the whole thing reads as intentional rather than half-done.

• The finished zone. Front and centre, your best-painted, fully based models. This is what a visitor sees first and it sets the standard for everything else.
• The working zone. One end of the display, or one tier, for units in progress — basecoated, part-highlighted, unbased. Grouping them together makes them read as ‘current project’. Scattered among finished models, the same units read as sloppy.
• The gap. Deliberate empty slots for what comes next. This is the part people resist and it is the part that works — an empty slot next to a finished squad is a much more effective prompt than a spreadsheet.

One Rule: Keep Bare Plastic Off the Shelf

Basecoated and part-painted models earn a place on a display. Unassembled sprues, bare grey plastic and primed-but-untouched models do not — they drag the eye and make the whole display look like storage. There is also a practical reason: unvarnished, unpainted plastic left in daylight can discolour over months. Keep the unstarted pile in its box and let the display show only work that has begun. Our note on varnishing before display covers protecting the finished ones.

Why Modular Matters Here

A fixed-size display is sized for the army you have today, which is the one thing guaranteed to change. A modular system solves this by letting you start with a single stand and add units as the collection grows — the display expands at the same rate the army does, so you never have the awkward stage of a half-empty showcase or an overflowing one.

It also makes reorganising painless, which matters more than it sounds. Armies get rearranged constantly as units are finished, and a system where stands interlock and models lift in and out cleanly means a five-minute job rather than a full rebuild. The WarSplay Classic was designed around exactly this pattern — 17 slots per stand, interlocking so you can add capacity a squad at a time, pre-assembled so there's no build step, and compatible with Warhammer 40,000® miniatures along with most other systems on standard 28–32mm bases.

An Honest View

This approach suits people whose collection is genuinely active. If you paint one model a year to an exceptionally high standard, a single plinth for that model is a better answer than a growing army display — our guide to podiums and plinths covers that case. And if seeing unfinished work every day is going to nag rather than motivate you, ignore all of the above and display only the finished pieces. The point is a display you enjoy walking past, not a productivity system.

Frequently Asked Questions

Should I display half-painted miniatures?

Yes, if they are basecoated or further along — group them together at one end so they read as a current project rather than scattered unfinished work. Keep bare or primed-only plastic off the display entirely.

Does displaying an unfinished army actually help you paint more?

For most people, yes. A visible empty slot next to a finished squad creates a small, specific next task, which is far more effective than a list of everything left to do.

What size display should I buy if my army is still growing?

Buy for the collection you have now and choose a modular system you can extend. Interlocking stands let you add a squad's worth of capacity at a time instead of replacing the whole display.

Is it bad to leave unpainted plastic on display?

It looks like storage rather than a display, and bare plastic can discolour with prolonged light exposure. Keep unstarted models boxed until they are at least basecoated.

How do I stop the display looking messy while I rearrange it constantly?

Keep the three zones consistent — finished at the front, in-progress at one end, gaps for what's next. As long as the structure holds, the contents can change weekly without the display ever looking disorganised.