Rebuilding My Cacti Patch

Back in 2013, when I started this blog, one of the first things I posted was my Deathworld Cacti turtorial, but I was never 100% satisfied with how they turned out back then and for some time I have been working on upgrading and rebuilding the cacti patch.

The finished and rebuild cacti patch.

First of all I wasn't satisfied about how the CD bases looked too uniform on the table. At first it didn't bother me that much, but it was annoying me more and more as time went by, so I began searching for an alternative.

After some time I decided that I wanted some lasercut bases, it would not be the cheapest option, but probably the best option considering price and time spent on it all. There really is a lot of lasercut stuff to chose from on the internet, but in the end I found a cheap solution on Ebay and ended up with 80 terrain bases in a mix of different shapes and sizes.

Top view of the finished pieces.

Another thing I wanted was for the terrain to fit into the plastic boxes I use for storage of my terrain. I had bought them to fit the CD bases, but as it turned out they were a bit too small for that. 

So when I started the rebuilding I first chose some bases which would fit the box. I put an A4 paper in the box and drew the outlines of the bases and I numbered the bottom of the bases, so I will always be able to easily fit them back in the box for storage.

Some Marines defend themselves against an Ambull onslaught.

The ARBCO silo.

"So for a good bean soup you need beans, onions, potatos and... wait, did you hear something?"

Marines being monitored by Inquisitor Gar.

Backside (or front) of the ARBCO silo.

Detail of the top of the silo.

On top of the silo I used some diluted woodglue, to which I added some orange/brown paint, I poored it onto the silo and left it to dry. Which gave the result of the dried in pool of rusty/dirty water. I think the effect worked out quite good.

Below is some WIP of the process. I took off the cacti from the CD bases, some of the cacti had their spikes re-done and all needed slight update on paint and such stuff.

Chosing what cacti to put where.

Progress.

Bases painted and spikes added to the cacti.

I chose to do the cacti on their own and finish the bases before I stuck them on. They would need some work after attaching, but it would eliminate some of the problems about painting around the spikes and all.

Tile adhesive added to give structure.

First layer of paint.

Almost done, the silo needs paint and I added some grass to the bases.

The cacti patch is not the only terrain I have been working on lately and below is a few pictures of some of the other stuff I have finished.

A stone circle from some resin stones I bought once.

The finished Alien Vegetation From Drinking Straws.

Quite big plants.

Some easter eggs.

A spread of the combined terrain.

I'm rather pleased I must say.

As you can see these cacti and friends are not nearly enough to cover a whole table yet. But I do have a few other things which didn't make it to this photo-shoot.

I plan to make some more boxes of terrain and try to make them a bit themed. So I want to make one more box of cacti, this is the most important instant old school terrain feature and I think doubling the amount of cacti will look impressive on any table.

Besides that I have plans for a box of mushroom terrain, some boxes of sci-fi jungle terrain. more bunkers, silos, containers and generally i just hope to end up with a lot of different terrain and still try to keep it useful together in any mix or match.