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143: Moped

| admin

Now it is my brother-in-law’s Birthday today (Happy Birthday Robert!!!) and he loves all things Motorbike (especially high powered zoomy ones), so I thought I would make him a Moped:

This is doubly hilarious because this little dinky model looks like it would be slower than walking

Made with some simple (if compact and intense) box pleating – no cuts nor glue, this is a well proportioned and fun to fold model.

You should have a go at this yourself – take care, 32nds are a pain to fold on a small piece of paper – Instructions are in Austrian but the diagrams make plenty of sense.

141: Biplane

| wonko

Now I had relegated this model in to the “yeah, prolly not” pile but on a whim this morning thought I would give it a whirl:

The detail here is amazing – propeller, landing gear, double wings with strut to keep them apart, tail, engine, reasonably shaped fuselage

I would like to pretend this model came easily – it did not – so many obscure instructions, torturous collapses and closed sinks (often only to discover they were inside the body of the model and would not be seen anyway). It is a paper engineering marvel that I nearly gave up on 4 times.

In the end, an A3-cut square collapsed down to a tiny plane that is 10cm long and has a wingspan of 12cm – wow! Accuracy was a real problem as the model is so oddly shaped getting corners sharp on deeply fatigued paper was tough – copy paper is NOT the ideal medium for this model, still remarkably it held up (with some very gentle coaxing towards the end).

I am very happy with this, the first fold. Should I decide to fold it again I would do it much smarter. I will, however, accept discrete applause now, thank you.

Achtung!
Jetzt wir singen zusammen die Geschichte
Über den schweinköpfigen Hund
Und den lieben Red Baron

After the turn of the century
In the clear blue skies over Germany
Came a roar and a thunder men have never heard
Like the scream and the sound of a big war bird

Eins, zwei, drei, vier ….

Up in the sky, a man in a plane
Baron von Richthofen was his name
Eighty men tried and eighty men died
Now they’re buried together on the countryside

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Left, two, three, four ….

In the nick of time, a hero arose
A funny-lookin’ dog with a big black nose
He flew into the sky to seek revenge
But the Baron shot him down “Curses, foiled again!”

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Now, Snoopy had sworn that he’d get that man
So he asked the Great Pumpkin for a new battle plan
He challenged the German to a real dogfight
While the Baron was laughing, he got him in his sight

That Bloody Red Baron was in a fix
He’d tried everything, but he’d run out of tricks
Snoopy fired once and he fired twice
And that Bloody Red Baron went spinning out of sight

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty or more
The Bloody Red Baron was rollin’ out the score
Eighty men died tryin’ to end that spree
Of the Bloody Red Baron of Germany

Well, ten, twenty ….

140: A Cannon

| wonko

Now one of the things I enjoy playing, with my mate, is an old-school game called “Dogfight” – great fun of plane v plane between German and American allied forces, set in WWI, when fair game and honour existed between aces. One of the game elements is a cannon:

A fairly clever figurative model that uses the windmill base as it’s starter and ends up fairly complete

I quite like the wheels, although they are formed at step 15 with the most hilarious instruction “Fold as shown, you might find this easier if you had folded these at step 2” – hahahaha, not. The designer is right, it would have been easier, but a headsup might have been prudent…?

Nice figruative model – I could see some little ones of these on a game board, but they would get hella-fiddly in places (might do a test on the limit of smallnicity I can fold them) … Dang, now I need a biplane (think Red Baron) …

136: Starship Enterprise

| wonko

..Space, the final frontier. These are the journeys of the Starship Enterprise as she continues her 5 year mission …

Talk about “boldly going where no copy paper has been before”, this delightful little model is the result of wrestling an A3-cut square into something that is 17cm saucer to nacelle.

I really enjoyed torturing the paper to make this model, although paper fatigue and the sheer thicknesses in places caused it’s “structural integrity” to be compromised. I am pleased that it is relatively complete – it has a bridge rather vulnerably perched atop a nice saucer, 2 engineering marvels in nacelles attached rather nicely to the main hull, even a main deflector dish – so cool.

Why an “Enterprise”? Well, my mate and I finished BSG and will, tomorrow night, start the Original Star Trek episodes (Kirk, Spock etc) – both of us are healthily obsessed with all things Trek (we have seen it all, I used to even be able to speak Klingon!). I look forward to our time exploring sci fi so …. two to beam up Mr Scott…

135: Fantastic Mrs Fox

| wonko

Curiously, a female fox is called a “vixen”. this delightful model is Roman Diaz’s fox:

I must say I really enjoyed folding this one – there are some fantastically complicated steps, astonishing collapses, intricate sinks and some nice fine work – thank goodness I used a square cut from A3 – the facial expression particularly is just fabulous and such a lovely tail.

This took me about an hour, I had seen the diagrams but having Sara Adams talk me through the steps (via a video tutorial) made it so much easier (as some of the diagrammed maneuvers were baffling). With 2 colour paper there are white highlights in all the right places – brilliant design

You should try this too here

134: Lang’s Tarantula

| wonko

When I first saw this model I knew it was going to be a tough one – so much paper compressed into such a compact model:

I searched for some large format copy paper and an architect friend gave me some A1 80gsm, from which I cut an 80cm square (well, as I discovered when I was folding, it was not quite square, but I soldiered on)

The SCALE of this model is terrifying, the finished model is bigger than my hand and horrifically spider-like, even as a white first-fold. I am itching to fold this again, with some thinner, more robust paper.

I would like to say this was a quick model, in truth it ate nearly 4 hours (but I did manage to make some rather spectacular pumpkin soup during the many tea and chore breaks). Some of the steps are astonishingly tricky, and I could not imagine achieving them easily on a smaller bit of paper – the body and leg thicknesses were very tough and I am afraid the paper suffered paper fatigue on many primary creases.

I am seriously chuffed I managed to achieve something so spider-like, there were many junctures where I thought of giving up and folding something simpler (and denying all knowlege of the crumpled mess in the bin) but patience, perseverance and earl grey tea took the photocopy paper places it should not have been able to go.

You too can have a go at this here … wish I had seen this video before finishing the thing.

I love this pose-able model, and accept your discrete applause for being able to fold it. I am sorry Mr Lang, I will attempt to make the bits neater the next time I fold it – you are a design genius however.

This model seems like it wants to get up and go places, so I have begun creeping out the family by making it do so (Blu Tac is a lovely thing)

133: Brill’s Bottle

| wonko

I would rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy:

A fully formed container, neck, base, hollow and interesting

I like this design, and was sure it would not work – forming the neck and pleating the base to seal it make it a very clever model indeed.

Folded from the aptly titled “Brilliant Origami” by David Brill. Looks like a spirit bottle – it suggests you fold it out of clear material and put a ship inside it – that would be cool also.

Hope you like it – not bad for such a tired brain.

131: A Bit of Bull

| wonko

Given my (perfectly reasonable) obsession with cows, it is surprising that this is one of only a few so far:

A rather cute water buffalo bull, head down, beautiful horns, bum up

A simple, figurative fold after a huge and exhausting day.

130: Cylon Reading it’s Script

| wonko

Tuesday evenings for over a year now a mate and I get together and watch 2 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, gradually wending our way through the seasons. Tonight is the final 2 eps:

I like the idea that the CG extras (robot Cylons or “toasters” as they are lovingly referred to) would have to check the script to determine their cues to enter, gesticulate mecahically and kill all humans, so I modded a fold of a german person wearing a hat reading a newspaper to suit:

…squint, look at it in poor light, chemically enhanced and … you got it, right? Well, it is sort of figurative, and sort of works – I really wanted to do the whole cylon centurion but could not find a fold that worked.

If you have not seen the more recent incarnation of BSG you really should – it is landmark Sci Fi, I like it that episodic drama can literally take your breath away, move you to care about the characters, make you question things and be so danged entertaining to discuss.

128: Mother’s Day Brooch

| wonko

Mother’s Day is a chance to do something nice for Mum, because…. When your Mum is going to be overseas, it takes planning for that to happen:

This first fold was completed a couple of weeks ago – snail mail to the UK is slow, so I needed to make the coloured ones for cards in time for them to arrive today:

I made a card for each (Mum and Mum-in-law), hope they like them. The coloured roses are rather special – made from imported Yuzen Washi, mounted on to blank cardstock I think they look lovely.

This is a variation of a camelia fold I have yet to try. With 2 colour paper the leaves would be one colour and the rose another, neat:

Designed by Sy Chen, YOU should have a go at this yourself – it is simple and the result is lovely. I am sure your mum would love it – go here for a video demonstration

126: Skier

| wonko

The Elias base is a great one for figures:

This delightful downhill skier is a fine example – I like the posture, the arm positions, it looks like he is on motion. Folded from “More Origami” by Robert Harbin, another application of the Elias base. A fairly simple fold for a hectic afternoon/night, hope you like it.

125: Snapping Turtle

| wonko

The “Hare and the Tortoise” have a lot to do with what I was involved in today:

Our school had their inter-house cross country run. I was the far checkpoint and saw some hares and a LOT of tortoises – you get that, they are teenage boys after all.

This lovely turtle caught my eye for the shell, a delicate pleating pattern held in sort of 3d by side pleats, nice. It has all toes, a cute tail but the head (as diagrammed) is rather featureless, sadly – should I fold it again I think I would re-work the head completely as there is plenty of paper there to so some nice features.

Designed by John Szinger, you can have a go at this yourself here

124: May the Fourth Be With You

| wonko

Now the date is a word-play on a classic Star Wars line, and what better to celebrate Star Wars Day than with C3P0:

This is a mask – even from an A4 sheet it is quite large – I Hazard to suggest that an A3 sheet would make one that was wearable. Fairly happy with it – simple fold, busy day.

123: Sparrow

| wonko

Looking for an easy model, busy evening – this model has 20 steps, each simple – the result, delightful:

I like this model a lot – I can see plenty of modelling potential – the wings, it’s beak, lovely plump body, under-developed feet – neat and a really different approach to constructing a bird – many steps done by judgement (rather than landmarks) so lots of potential for character – mine looks like a soon-to-fledge youngster.

122: Geiger Xenomorph (alien)

| wonko

I loved Ridley Scott’s “Alien” – so dark, terrifying and it introduced a much reprised xenomorph originally designed by H.R. Geiger.

When I first saw the instructions for a paper xenomorph (in Spanish) I filed them away in the “yeah, prolly not” folder.

Conventionally the diagram should have symbols to reinforce what is happening (sometimes with words also, except these were in Spanish). First exception to the rule was a TURN OVER with no corresponding flip symbol!!! Grrrr. Following my realisation that I was folding the wrong side, I tried again only to be baffled by “Quedan la dos solapas mirando hacia la derecha” describing a collapse, followed by “Introducir las solapas dentro de los bolsillos” to describe a pocket tuck … poor paper (and finger tips) by this stage. Thank you Google translate.
Now I admit I broke a rule here – I got part way towards collapsing the base and realised I missed an instruction to open some side flaps so did all the nasty folding over the top of some snarly pre-folding instead of on the yet-unfolded side. I discovered this when i opened up the model expecting to find pre-creases only to find none – oops. I was determined to complete this model, so I started again – so sue me.

This is AMAZING – appendages, tail (ouch, that was painful to fold at this scale) and I re-worked the head to be a little 3d and characteristically domed – very pleased with this model. For an A3-cut square to reduce to a model barely 7cm tall, there is a LOT of paper torture, thank goodness for fingernails – I am amazed the copy paper did not simply disintegrate (it would have had I used the model I folded in error first).

For all you Alien fans out there, this one is for you (in commemoration of the theft of a classic line in the movie “Paul” I saw last night – “get away from her you bitch!” – lol.