When I bought the book “Potential Origami Collection”, there were a few models in it I slated as “yeah, you are not good enough to fold that, yet” – this model was one of those:
This is Jeong Jae Il’s glorious horse, and it may be my new favourite origami horse (bumping Dave Brill’s triangle-based horse off the top spot – sorry Dave)
The exacting and unforgiving early pre-creasing is difficult (I did not photograph it because I was so lost in what I was doing) – and challenging to be accurate as it involves a LOT of constructing angles on long diagonals – with my chosen 90cm square those diagonals were really long (leading to a little inaccuracy). A 90cm sheet led to a finished model that stands, rearing, just over 30cm high.
The actual collapse and folding is different to most diagrams – once the BASE of the model is arrived at – a roughly horsey shape with flaps for heat, tail and 4 legs articulated more or less where they need to be in the final model, the designer then COMPLETELY develops each feature before moving on to the next. Head, front leg, the other front leg, tail, back leg, other back leg.
Other designers scatter finishing details (do a little here, move somewhere else and do a little, return here eventually to do a little more etc.). Some models have inter-area dependencies I know, but it was refreshing to see each bit refine in my hands – very satisfying folding indeed.
I will fold this again, and use nicer paper, but, in my opinion a GOOD model looks good with plain paper – this one does – it is just so “horsey”.
I really enjoyed folding this model, just got lost in the process. I decided not to wire it to a base internally as it would disrupt the lines too much, so stabilised the open seams and then added a central clippy-stand thing that grips the internals up near the neck, allowing the model to balance in the rearing pose pretty naturally.
