I _want_ to pretend that every bit of paper I touch turns into a magnificent model that everyone gasps at, but that is FAR from the truth. This is my FOURTH attempt at Shuki Kato’s “Western Dragon”. It joins a LARGE collection of landfill (discarded unsuccessful models) and was responsible for many BAD WORDS but I have just about calmed down and will lick my wounds before re-engaging with the demon paper.

This is a western dragon because, apparently, people in the west need “wings” to make a flying dinosaur make sense. In the East, wings are not necessary because they just fly – humans do not need to wonder how.

This is the furthest I have gotten with this model, and managed to wrangle all parts of the model (first attempt 2 years ago) but I did not achieve the head – it is supposed to be a glorious 12-horned snarling grimace (as opposed to the crumpled mess I made).

It was going fine, and managed to wrangle body, legs and tease lovely wings from the sheet with a good degree of accuracy. the tail was going well and I managed the 5 spikes, toes and claws, then I turned to the head.

I managed the first few maneuvers that take a thin pleated structure and bend itself back on itself, then uses the bent back bits to make a row of spikes. then it went tits-up. I lost crease lines, could not find indicated flaps and landmarks, then got disoriented at the “repeat this on the other side” because it was backwards, right, and it was hard enough the right way around.

I am not done with this model – it WILL NOT beat me. I think I will try to fold the head in isolation first, on a test fold – before committing to such a large sheet fo the whole model. I started with a 70cm square, and think I will go larger – we shall see.

I _could_ pretend that in the world of dragons, mutants are encouraged to survive but this mutant is an important reminder of what NOT to do, hopefully attempt 5 will be the charm … we shall see.