1:72 Prickly Pear Cactus Set

Prickly Pear Cactus Set, a set of prickly pears in 1:72 scale

This is a scenic set of prickly pears for making dioramas and landscape scenes in 1:72 scale. It is not a kit or an accessory for any vehicle - it is vegetation for the terrain. The manufacturer gives cacti of several sizes and shapes, so the vegetation does not start to repeat. The parts are 3D printed, are supplied unpainted and sit on printing supports.

The real subject

Prickly pears come exclusively from the Americas. The Spanish brought them to the Old World and in North Africa they settled in from the sixteenth century. Today they grow in Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia, in Sicily and southern Italy, in Malta and in Spain, and they reached the Middle East. For the modeler a rule follows from this: prickly pears belong in scenes from North Africa, Sicily, Italy, Spain or the Middle East, but not in a Central European landscape, and in a scene older than the modern era they would be an anachronism.

Fitting and painting tips

Cut the printing supports off carefully, as the pads of the plant are thin. Protect your airways when sanding. Glue with cyanoacrylate glue and apply a primer coat. A prickly pear is not uniformly green: go over a gray-green base along the edges of the pads with a lighter dry brush and let a darker shade run into the joints. Tie the bottom of the plant and the surrounding ground together with the same pigment, so that the cactus does not look stuck on.

Who the set is for

• makers of dioramas from North Africa, Sicily and Italy in 1:72
• modelers who build a dry and warm landscape
• builders of display case scenes, where the vegetation must not repeat
• anyone building a whole terrain: in the same range the manufacturer also lists palms, stumps and broken trunks

This is an accessory for a diorama, not a kit. Glue and paints are not included in the package, unless stated otherwise.