Making Saguaro Cactus Terrain Tutorial

I finally pulled my paints and crafts boxes down to finish this tutorial on how to make Saguaro cacti for small scale terrain tables (for 1:72 or 28mm miniatures). The technique is fairly straightforward–sculpt a cactus with clay around a nail, bake, base, and paint. The hardest part is sculpting the cactus to resemble the real thing. I try to keep them thin and tall and make the pleats as even as possible from the top to the bottom. The key is using a piece of a toothpaste cap. It took some practice but in no time I created a dozen or so Saguaros. I wanted to add some grass tufts and lichen to the bases as well as use some pastel weathering but I chose to omit those steps as they are self explanatory but if you have some in your terrain supply I’m sure the bases will look that much better. I’ve assembled the steps into a .pdf file below the gallery so you can save for later. I hope you enjoy the tips and can use the techniques.