I'm more worried about the vellum not holding up than I am the acrylic, but Its an experiment so we'll see. Also if people would be interested in acrylic gauge blanks I can cut clear white and black, but maybe a field test would be good first.
The gauges are actually mostly backlit now, I think the etching helps some, but I really think if I had just cut a plain blank it would work nearly as well. I had originally intended to paint them, but the etching wasn't quite deep enough... The next ones I make will most likely just be plain, that way I can change the vellum inserts to whatever style I want.