- 240 Pack Craft Foam Balls (This listing has a good mix of sizes and was the most balls for the price.)
- Plain Round Toothpicks (I went through all 800)
- Mod Podge Matte Waterbase Sealer 16 oz
- Woodland Scenics Light Green Coarse Turf 32 oz Shaker (or another color you prefer)
- Hot Wire Foam Cutter / Sharp utility knife.
- Tacky Glue
- Rob the scale marine
- Finishing nails, metal washers. (optional. On some cacti I would push in finishing nails to add weight and keep them from falling over. You don't need to do this for the wider cacti but a little weight never hurt when working with terrain.)
I'm not an amazon affiliate, if you have a creator you'd like to support click their affiliate link and then purchase these and they'll get the commission and Amazon pays them out of Amazons pocket.
1. Collect your future cacti
2. Start with the biggest size and start connecting. Using a knife or hot wire foam cutter make two flat sides and attach them with a toothpick and tacky glue. It doesn't need to be perfect without gaps. That'll get fixed later. Add balls offset to keep the weight even, and try to add balls in odd numbers. This helps keep the cactus look more organic and less structured.
3. Terrain should add to the game experience. With that in mind I made a series of barrier cacti to work as hedge's while the taller ones work as tree's.
4. with a large tub I took painted half the cacti with mod podge and dumped the green turf over it. What I should have done is mixed a dark green paint into the modge podge to cover the white better and so I could see where I'd missed applying glue.
5. To seal the flock in place I mixed 1:1 mod podge with water so that the flock was saturated and sturdy. I poked some toothpicks into the bottom and floated them above some scrap foam so that they'd drip dry. You don't want them glued down to whatever they're on. Repeat this so the entire cacti is flocked and sealed. You should dip a large round brush in the mix and tap the cacti so it flows through without disturbing the flock.
6. I decided to keep the natural look of the flock rather than painting them green. I mixed flock and mod podge together to a thick paste and filled in all the obvious foam gaps. I then painted mod podge on the cactus and shook flock over till completely covered.
Sealing this step I used a mix of 1:8 mod podge to water so it was sealed but didn't darken and was still soft. I lined a separate bin with towels and t shirts so they could absorb the drips and keep the bottom flocked and flat without tearing like paper etc.
7. Now prep the toothpicks and stick them into a big thing of foam so you can spray them all at once. If you're using a rattle can to spray these don't put them in foam. You can stick them in before this and hand paint them, but it's much easier this way.
8. Once they dry I flipped them over in the foam and airbrushed the other sides of the toothpicks.
9. Cut the spikes off with a pair of hobby clippers.
10. Use a toothpick and start poking holes where you'd like the spikes. mix some mod podge with water 1:1 and dip the spoke in the mix. Twist the spike in, and if there's too much excess glue wipe it off. Diluting it with water is meant to prevent those big glue globs. These don't take a lot of adhesion to stay in place.
( Hands were covered in glue so no pic for this step. )
Impress your friends, strike fear into your enemies, and confuse your acquaintances with all your new cacti! The perfect addition to any table top wargame.
