[Stiglr]

depends on whether you actually want articulated sections, with real contour, or if you're going for visual effect.

A lot of that could be done with a good texture on top of a "smooth" articulated cylinder. But if you MUST have segments with actual space between them that are of a different diameter than the segments...you're in for a bit of work, I'm afraid.

In that case, I'd suggest creating one each of the larger and smaller segments and clone/paste these to create the others, welding vertices at the seams. You'll have to do some vertice manipulation to get curves and things.