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1130: Villeneuve Ornithopter v1.2

| wonko

When I first read Frank Herbert’s “Dune” series of books, it was the mid 70’s and I was a teenager. The expansive universe captured my imagination like little else.

Dune Part 2 has just been released in cinemas, and the Denis Villeneuve adaptation is visually stunning. On planet Arrakis (Dune), a chosen method of air travel is the “Ornithopter”, described as an insect-like flapping machine.

’Thopters in the current movie series are astonishing, if illogical from an engineering perspective. Variously, ‘Thopters have 2 to 12 wings, each move independently in a coordinated buzz to provide controlled lift and thrust.

The origami world has a few simple ‘thopter designs, most modelled on the 80’s David Lynch film adaptation, so I thought I would have a go at designing one from scratch. Initially I thought to harness an existing base, but decided I wanted 12 wings, in groups of 3, and wanted landing gear, some paper for a fuselage and various flaps for some simple detailing.

There are many design methodologies I could have employed. Circle packing (each circle centre representing the vertex of a stickey outer bit), 22.5 folding to facilitate the point-splitting needed for so many separate flaps, but settled on box pleating.

First I sketched out a rough crease pattern (CP). 12 points along opposite edges of a square. The downside of this arrangement was the points ended up tiny – way too small for the wings. Rearranging them symmetrically allowed me to include extra flaps for landing gear, cockpit and more. Designing the collapse along a 2 unit strip of the central axis also gave me the bulk for the fuselage. I calculated I could achieve this with a 48 grid.

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1129: Blastoff!

| wonko

Grommit, you forgot the crackers!!!

Scrolling through this year’s JOISEL AWARD entrants, I noticed a lovely little Rocketship designed and folded by Zhu Yandan, from China – it was released with a crease pattern (CP) so I thought it worth a try.

I used a technique called “Ghost Creasing”, where ONLY the needed creases are transferred via careful embossing using a stylus. This eliminates the excess grid creases, making the fold cleaner.

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1117: Mod on a Moped

| wonko

When you talk of “box pleating”, the young kids in the origami design sphere seem to think they invented it. I was fishing around on the web, for origami-related things as you do, and stumbled across an astonishing scanned page from Neal Elias’ notebook from 1968 that features box pleating:

This is Neal’s “Boy on a motor scooter” – an amazing proto-design from 1968!!!!! (this is all there is, you have to fill in the gaps – it was his personal notebook, the diagrams were all HE needed to fold the model) but what an historical gem of a design. It is doubly interesting because it was designed 3 years before I began my journey in origami as a wide-eyed, clueless 11 year old.

Further research suggests this page was “ripped” from a BOS Publication Booklet 35 (still in print?) called “Neal Elias Miscellaneous Folds – II “, edited by Dave Venables. I have purchased the previous Neal Elias volume but was unaware this treasure exists – it has prototypes of some very famous and completely revolutionary designs indeed (like “The Last Waltz”).

Back in the “early” days of western origami, Elias was a pioneer, realising that by gridding a sheet of paper, then using gridlines and 45 degree connectors you could pleat astonishingly complex structures that could then be shaped into complex figurative models. As a kid, the few models I had access to from him were like crack to me. I mastered the “Elias stretch” (these days I think they call it a ‘pythagorean stretch’) and “Elias base”, making skiers and knights in armor, all from squares.

Many of his designs use odd shaped paper – this model uses an 8×22 grid, and the colour change base is particularly wonderful, leaving all the bits of a person in one colour and a lovely long pleat bundle of alternate colour emerging from him. I can see so much potential of all sorts of things here.

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1110: Origami World Marathon 4

| wonko

I have recently completed the mammoth 50hr+ live fold-along festival called The Origami World Marathon. I folded as many as I could physically attend, and it is a super rare privilege to be actually taught by such world class designers.

I managed about 14 models live, slept some and can complete those missed because, as part of the purchased ticket I gain access to video tutorials from the designers for the next year – win, win.

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The Last Dogfight

| wonko

A group of mates has, periodically over the last few decades, gotten together in a smoke-filled room to play a board game. Not any old game, but “Dogfight” – a dice-based, card controlled WW1 battle of the airspace over Europe.

Although most of the players were well passed their fifties, we squabbled like little kids, goaded each other fearlessly, preened and peacocked at our prowess and got nit-picky about the many nuances of rule variations hard won.

dogfight battle - endgame

It was honestly some of the best fun to be had, and the chaps were good sports, one and all. In January, one of our quartet passed away. “Dr Winston O’Boogie” (Michael) flew off into the sunset for the last time to great fanfare.

A quintuple ace in training

We have met since, dragging a young buck into the fold, and played until Michael’s house (the home of our epic aerial battles) was finally sold.

Tonight is our last hurrah!

Marc Kirshembaum's Biplane and Eduardo Clement's Avioneta

I have struggled to find a suitable way to celebrate such a wonderful partnership, but turned to Origami, as is my want. I wanted to fold BIPLANES for the original pilots, and a smaller plane for the new recruit, and have really struggled with these models. The Biplanes are designed by Marc Kirschenbaum. I wanted to fold them smaller but failed many times, only being able to manage them from 60cm squares (and not very tidily sadly) – red, naturally in honour of Von Richtoffen (or Snoopy, take your pick).

The smaller plane is “Avioneta” designed by Eduardo Clemente – a charming little fokker.

I hope the guys like them. I remain forever grateful for the opportunity to act like little kids when surrounded by the wonder and majesty of imagination, fun and friendship. Chocks away Chuck, fly true one and all.

927: It’s All About the Base

| wonko

One approach to paper folding starts with a “base” – a form with flaps and general morphology that suits an end goal.

A well-designed base is a thing of beauty, and a flexible tool.

This base, a mutated fish base has really useful properties as demonstrated by these two wildly different folds, both designed by Jose Ma Chaquet from Spain. Continue reading →

924: Crawler Excavator (aka. A Diggosaur )

| wonko

Often Origami books are organised such that the simpler models are at the front, more challenging folds towards the back. “Origami Pro 3 – Machine Origami” by members of the Korean Origami Association is organised such and this model was the last one, designed by Jang Yong Ik:

Starting with a 60cm square of thin crisp Kraft paper, you begin tiny grids, then collapse the edges only, then form a preliminary base, then bird base, then begins a layer management exercise from hell as we thin down and divide the points to make the bits that would later be details. Continue reading →

923: Concrete Mixer (aka. A Mixosaur)

| wonko

At the risk of a family intervention, I present to you my first fold of Yoo Tae Yong’s “truck mixer” from the origami book “Origami Pro 3 – Machinery Origami” from a group of members of the Korean Origami Association:

From a square, via a very useful base, we arrive at what eventually looks mechanical but up until you begin squaring things up could also be an animal. This furthers my theory that heavy machinery is the living embodiment of once-thought extinct dinosaurs. More work to be done here. Continue reading →

912: (362/365) Abandon Ship!

| wonko

As the year 2017 swiftly comes to an end, after seemingly being in a hurry to do so all year, it is almost time to abandon ship:

Time for one last waltz, one more visit to the buffet, perhaps a cigar on the poop deck then it is lifejackets on and over the side into the icy uncertainty of the new year. Continue reading →

852: (302/365) Magic Carpet Ride

| wonko

Go on, admit it. Ever since you saw the “Aladdin” movie you have secretly thought how cool it would be to ride on a magic carpet:

This clever model, inexpertly folded, is an exercise in colour management- had I used bi-colour paper, the rider and carpet would be different colours – pretty neat. Continue reading →

848: (298/365) Dogfight

| wonko

I am blessed to have friends who occasionally gather around an original board game from the 60’s and pit plane against plane in a WW2ish game of “Dogfight”:

Tonight it was the valiant PDub against the Von Richtoffen Brothers, with much valiance on both sides, some gutsy moves and a bunch of squabbling like 4 year-olds.

Cards, dice, strategy, attack but in the end, the Von Richtoffen brothers were victorious, only after sustaining tragic losses of a triple-ace in training and a double-ace in training by a plucky little airman who went down in a blaze of glory. Continue reading →

807: (257/365) Won’t you come and fly ….

| wonko

…in my beautiful balloon:

This is an 18 section balloon made from 6 modules that overlap and interleave, edge locks that secure the geometry, no glue, no cuts etc. I can see it decorating a small kid’s bedroom, surrounded by planes and rocket ships. Who wants it? Continue reading →

674: (124/365) Red Leader Standing By

| wonko

May The Fourth be with you.

Now I must admit to being one of the original Star Wars nerds, seeing the films when first aired a number of times – they heralded a new style of Sci-Fi, a place where space was common place, space ships were clean and villains announced their evil plans with enough time to allow the rebel alliance to thwart them:

The spacecraft in the Star Wars universe were unique and wildly illogical. I can remember seeing Tie Fighters and thinking wtf? Continue reading →

623: (73/365) Burro con Carro

| wonko

Yoshizawa Sensei once said “The Horse and the rider are not one, nor should a model of them be”, or words to that effect and I think this model is an interesting reflection of that sentiment:

This is Eduardo Clemente’s “Burro con Carro” which I think means “Donkey and Cart”. Fashioned from a 3×1 rectangle, the technique involves completely wasting the middle square to provide a join that more or less makes sense between the cart and the tail of the donkey.

The trouble is, the join is so thick that modelling the hindquarters of the donkey is compromised, the cart does not sit quite right and the front of the model is so light that modelling front legs and head/ears is flimsy and a bit of a fail. Continue reading →