Looking for a model to welcome in the new year, and also to further my Crease Pattern solving ability, I hoped this model would serve both purposes:

Part of a book I have helped edit prior to publishing, this is 1ctzH8jm0N2’s “Bone Dragon”, a CP and photodiagram sequence from the forthcoming book “Ori-Fancy 6”.

I started with a 90cm square, I divided into a 32 grid, then located the required diagonals, then begin allocating mountain and valley orientation to the creases before attempting the collapse.

There are lots of details here, and the initial collapse generates most of them – I buggered up the head collapse (rather I found the intricate point in point structure that would eventually become the horns too hard to do initially) but found it easy to do post-collapse, and was initially flummoxed by the feet structure until I realised a series of sinks needed to be closed-sinked, and another set needed to be open-sinks (hopefully this will be made clear in the final photo diagram annotations).

The body ends up being 30+ layers, making the necessary crimping for shaping really difficult with thick paper (I used natural Kraft paper) – there is a nice “bulk” to the body, and the body feels solid – thinner paper would make shaping less torturous.

Originally I was going to use MC for the shaping, but quickly realused that if I made all the layers “wet” then tried to wrestle them back into shape, paper fatigue would rip the neck and pelvis to bits. I settled on a much simpled solutioon – small spots of white glue (shhhh!) between each layer to close the seams and use the lamination of paper bulk as the structural support. The result is my most solid, stable and shapely “western” dragon yet. Western because it has wings.

I like this model a LOT, for many reasons. It’s folding is a really interesting problem-solving exercise – working from photo to photo (some separated by _really_ complex moves) was a lot of fun, I took my time and enjoyed the process.

Shaping was interesting, the structure suggests the appropriate musculature, lovely toes, glorious wings and fierce but adorable head, this dragon has huge personality. Although designed on a uniaxial base, the lamination of the layers means it is really structurally sound, and self-stands is an entertaining and stable way.