204: Android

| wonko

Now I am no fanboi of ANY operating system (they are ALL buggy, quirky and make little sense from a design perspective), and recommend NO hardware (it is ALL junk with 100% failure rate) but I thought some of my geekier friends might like this tribute:

A fairly faithful (at least from the front side of the model, it is fairly ugly at the back but might make a good card-mounted model) rendering of the Google Android mascot.

Apparently it should be green which is a little tricksey in a white-only first fold scenario but you get that. It features box pleating in TENTHS which in itself is interesting, but the initial collapse and shaping were interesting and I am happy with this as my first fold.

make me an offer, I might be convinced to fold one for you – you can have a go yourself here (be warned, it is not an introductory fold)

203: Skateboard

| wonko

Pressed with something to make and tired and shagged out after a busy week I stumbled across this model and thought I would give it a go:

I have seen kids using a mini-skateboard (tech deck I think they are called) and am amazed that this model is a fairly complete imitation of one, including wheels, trucks and deck.

Originally (the dev shots) I used a square from an A4 page – this resulted in a deck that was nearly 20cm long, so re-made it (the other shots) with a 1/4 A4 square and it is perfect in scale

I like how the wheels are made from curls of flaps formed from side sinks, it is fairly faithful – nice work Mr Trollip. You should definitely try this – you will impress the teens no end with you leet paper skills.

202: Ninja Star

| wonko

When I was a kid, an old black and white telly series from Japan called “Samurai” captured my attention – corny stories of good guys in white versus ninjas in black:

They threw star knives as one of their many skills (jumping, film reverse, back up into corners roof corners was another). A year 6 student brought me a ninja star he had made for him (mum or dad folded it) after I inquired if he could teach me.

After a small amount of deconstruction, the elegantly simple construction was evident – strength and simplicity in what looks like an intricate machine. I liked it so much I made a coloured one, using some lovely little washi squares Mary bought for me (love your work Cass’)

Happy with this, particularly as the star moves upon itself and the “blades” retract into a lovely octagonal ring – very clever

201: Winged Heart

| wonko

Apparently, according to JJJ at least, it is LOVE WEEK – awwwww

So I folded Frances Ow’s winged Heart (partly because it is late, I am tired and sometimes a simple fold is ok – ok?

An effective fold, in duo paper the heart is one colour and the wings are another – nice.

200: Hercules Beetle

| wonko

Wow, 200 days down so I thought I would try something special:

Kade Chan is a design master, and this beetle is something I will fold again (only not with copy paper) – this lovely beetle is complete with lovely carapace and modeled mandibles, all in very few folds.

Simplicity and economy results in a rounded body and legs that are i the right position – I got a little paper fatigue along the top central axis, but that is copy paper’s fault, not the design I feel as the thickness of 80gsm paper makes the body very thick and quite difficult to work with.

200 down, that is …only … 165 to go – bugger, just when I was feeling on top of this thing, nvm , happy with this as my first fold of this model.

199: Lego Block

| wonko

Now I like a good challenge, but this was a little beyond the pale:

I have seen photos of this model less than half as big and I am buggered if I can work out how you could fold it that small as I struggled at this scale.

A fascinating exercise in box pleating that makes the peggy things and the pitty things on the same surface of a page, then bending it into a self-locking box – wow!

I can see how this could scale infinitely, adding rows of pegs and pits but I am glad I chose only 2 of each as this alone took me an age to nut out – I had a practice with each component first (the site I found it suggested this was a good idea (well, at least I think it did, I cannot read Italian very well.

Why lego? Well, I have been playing with lego robots for a week or so in prep for a robotic unit with year 10 students – lots of fun.

You should have a go at this yourself here

198: Walkies (aka tree watering time)

| wonko

We live in a fairly quiet suburb and we like (not often enough sadly) to go for walks – as do dog owners who do it as much to get some exercise as to “empty their pet”:

I saw this exercise in box pleating and thought it had promise – starting with a grid of 24ths, you collapse and form a dog with leg cocked.

The tree (as per the instructions) was merely a fan – I thought that a bit boring so added some extra pleating to make a couple of branches and proceeded to add a fork in the trunk and some semi-crumpled foliage. With a little more crumpling the shapes would be nice and soft and gum-tree foliage like which is what I was aiming for.

I left it angular, as homage to the original design and to make it explicit what I had done to modify it – love it or hate it, I am pretty chuffed it worked given how fiddly the dog was. The little wee doggy has nice ears, an open mouth, four nicely formed legs (one lifted against the tree) and a floppy tail – nice.

197: Scissors

| wonko

I remember when I was in my early teens, I used to be forced to go to a barbershop just off the main street of Nambour (yes, lived there for a while) and the barber, a Maltese man with a thick mustache and little head hair (which is about as unlucky an omen as a thin chef I think) used to cut my hair:

“Short back and sides, with a surfie front” he used to call the hairstyle inflicted on me when all my mates had the finest “mullets” you have ever seen. Those were the days.

As I get older, there is less for the hairdresser to remove, more of it grey and less of it growing on my head – you get that apparently.

I was trolling to Netherlands Origami Society website (yes, these groups of paper benders are everywhere) and came upon a suggestion for scissors based on a stretched bird base, so I thought it appropriate today as I have just had a haircut and, being winter, my head is now cold – FML.

I have been told that the difference between a good haircut and a bad haircut is about 3 weeks – we shall see.

196: A Werewolf

| wonko

Now I have been a great fan of “Being Human” – particularly the character that plays the werewolf George:

I found this astonishing model by Kade Chan purely by accident – I was googling the telly show to see if there were more episodes planned and found reference to this neato origami model of a werewolf, complete with staring eyes, pricked up ears, ferocious claws and a lovely tail and I knew I had to try it.

This is such a well designed model – entirely doable with copy paper (I used a square cut from an A3 sheet) – with some precision and patience the body comes together without fatiguing the paper too much and astonishing detail is possible because each part is only a few thicknesses of paper, except the arms with are a little bulky towards the end when shaping the shoulders.

I particularly like the claws – scary things they are, with each finger posable and a snarly opposed thumb.

I could only find a vague photo sequence so had to guess in some stages by looking backwards and forwards towards the finished fold to work out what to do at times. This IS amazing, yes, you are right to be impressed – I am.

I will accept a round of applause, and cash to accompany any orders you have for me to fold you one of these.

195: The Eiffel Tower

| wonko

Vive le France – it is Bastille Day and I ask what is more quintessentially French than “Le Tour Eiffel”:

I resisted the obvious froggy references and went straight for a cultural landmark – albeit a fairly ugly bit of schrapnel left over from a world expo.

I like this model – partly because I folded it via a general principle rather than an exact pattern and the technique of “benching” the model is useful for other things I have planned.

Surprisingly, this model is quite rigid after the bottom layer is scalloped – must make another one for the French department, although I am disappointed they did not offer crouissant or other baked treats to celebrate.

A Mess of Messerschmitts

| wonko

Battle lines were drawn, with dusk approaching and a thick fog rolling in (or was that cigar smoke?) four valiant pilots entered the melee hell-bent on seeking glory.

So we played 4 person Dogfight – first game was a team challenge – Johnny Razor Eyes and Rampaging Roy versus the veteran VonHammer and rookie Juan Morego. Annihilation is close to the ugly truth as the filthy Hun were trounced, retiring humiliated to their bases to rally their troops.

The fog thickened, the schnapps ran freely and a last battle hatched: Because of the conditions it was impossible to tell who was friend and who was foe, so it was condition red, shoot on contact – last man standing.

Massacre was close to how the battle was later recorded in the avionic history books – rookie Yuan found his mettle, swooped out of the thickening fog to take plane after plane – not used to playing with others he kept on his radio to ensure his compatriots stayed back at base – he was going it alone.

With a full compliment of ammunition and aerobatic tricks up his sleeve he released the first salvo at VonHammar’s final plane to discover his worthy foes plane was out-classed on this occasion. Amazingly (well to me at least) without loss of a plane, Juan was the last plane in the air when the fog lifted and the smoldering wrecks (of people and planes) were tallied up.

Great fun – many thanks (and respect in memoriam) to Paul, Tim and finally Mike for a fun evening.

Valiant pilots seen here in repose, reeling from the devastation and inspecting their new aircraft – the Messerschmitt, heralding a new age in air warfare.

194: Messerschmitt

| wonko

I have been invited to a 4-person dogfight match tonight and thought a plane wold be the best model for the job, so found a rather nice Messerschmitt BF 109K:

With relatively few folds a lovely propeller-based warplane emerges from a flat sheet. I like this model a lot (so much so that I folded 4 of them – thought each of the “pilots” in tonight’s game might like one as a memento of the battle)

Nice fat fuselage, three blades on the propeller, cockpit and nice tail-plane, if anything the wings are a little short but given how they are gathered from the sheet they are good as they are.

193: Yoshizawa’s Bat

| wonko

There is great beauty in simplicity sometimes:

With relatively few folds, few landmarks, you form the suggestion of character as much by what you leave out as what you fold in – I like this model a lot.

Lovely ears and expressive wings that are posable, lovely fat tummy makes this little model a gem.

Why a bat – did I mention that MARKING makes me batty? Well it does, beyond measure and I have had a hellish few days racing to meet a deadline meaning that I MUST mark on my holidays (doesn’t seem fair, does it) – never mind. I love deadlines, particularly the sound they make as they whoosh by.

192: Yoshizawa’s Frog

| wonko

There is great skill in using few folds to suggest the form of a complex creature – few mastered it like Akira Yoshizawa:

I like this fold – deceptively simple, most folds are made without landmarks (ie. you use judgment and “eye” to work out where to fold) and the resultant form is simple yet charming.

I will fold this again – the body has so much potential but I like the minimalistic form also – it’s not easy being green.

191: Scorpion

| wonko

I have seen many models of various complicated insects, and intend to try many – my first foray is not an insect at all, but a scorpion:

This is a well designed model with 8 legs, a pair of lovely claws and a crab-like carapace underneath

The tail, IWHO, is a major oversight – it ends up so thick and fatigued that it was very difficult to model and you can see (if you look close) paper fatigue took it’s toll along the back primary crease and part way up the tail. Copy paper is not up to this job but I found out waaay to late in the fold to even consider re-starting it with different paper.

Some interesting and precise folds beforehand mean a collapse and a bunch of reverse folds easily make the legs and claws, quite impressed – could see also how this technique could be used to make a squid as well, will keep that in my toolbox of folds to consider.