Harder Than it Looks

After folding the water strider with the extending wings, I really wanted to fold something that transformed in a bigger way. Of course, I thought of the armadillo and started looking it up. It turns out that the three-banded armadillo is the only species of armadillo that can completely roll up into a ball. Thats what I planned to fold, but as it turns out it isn't that easy. You would think that a few pleats on the back to form bands being pulled apart would roll up the body enough for it to fit together, but it turns out that thats now nearly enough. At first, I figured that the un-rollable model that I folded would have to do, until I came up with the idea of using 45° angles instead of pulling apart pleats. Then I'd just have a nice little hinge in the center of the armadillo... Here is the CP that I used.


You can see the 45° angles that I was talking about. The thing is, this model has to be folded from foil or a paper that really keeps its shape well (I used foil sandwiched between kami and tissue paper glued with watered down glue and light brown watercolor paint. Its fun to experiment with materials). The head, tail and legs come easily, but don't forget the color change on the head. Also, adding two pleats on either side of the hinge make the three bands. Good luck!