This test model is a combination of my two recent series: Diagonal Shifts and Intersections. Even though this piece worked decently as a test model, it doesn’t work quite well enough yet for me to use this in a real model. Hopefully if I do another test fold, I’ll be able to fix some of those problems.
I’ve done a lot of engineering to figure out how to fold my recent series, but I haven’t shown much of the process. This time I took some photos of my first couple test folds to share. I started with some of the measurements I’ve previously used for the diagonal shift models. Creating the flat plane of the model is basically just folding down a rhombus to a single line. My first attempt was to fold the central rhombus into a waterbomb base:
This design looks great from the front, but the back won’t work for the full model. The large triangle sticking up in the back will get in the way of the curved portion of the model. A good start, but not quite useable.
Then I started trying to figure out how to get rid of that extra triangle. I started by inverting the waterbomb base so the triangle was sticking out the front of the model instead of out the back. Then I squash-folded the triangle to flatten it against the front of the model:
This design is much better from the back – there’s no extra paper between the two flaps along the central diagonal. That means I should be able to use it for more complex models. The problem is that the front is very messy-looking: the extra paper from the central rhombus is visible and not especially nice to see there.
In my third test fold, I combined the best parts of my two first test folds. I squash-folded the central rhombus, but I also hid the extra paper on the back side of the model:
This final design is what I used in the full test model (photo at the beginning of this post). I combined it with the diagonal shift approach I’ve already written about. Combining the flat part and the curved part is still a challenge, but it’s one I’m working on. I’m hoping to fold at least one or two full models based on this design, but it may be too complicated to turn into a full series.
