Ryujin 3.5 [Satoshi Kamiya]

Folded from a 6 foot square of kraft paper
Crease pattern found in Satoshi Kamiya's book "World of Supercomplex Origami"

Hmmm, where to start with this one? This is Kamiya Satoshi's famous super-complex dragon, the Ryujin 3.5, folded from a 6'x6' square of kraft paper (actually two 6'x3' rectangles taped together). Ever since I saw Kamiya Satoshi's own fold of his dragon, I hoped to one day successfully replicate his model. However this was several years ago and at the time I was unsure if I would ever have the ability to do so. In the mean time, I began designing my own designs. Fast forward to December 2013, where Mr. Origami ( www.flickr.com/photos/danielbr… ) offered to guide those interested in the techniques required to fold this model. I took him up on his offer and many test folds later, I'd say I reproduced a recognizable model!

I originally started this model in January 2014. With a new roll of kraft paper, the official crease pattern, and Mr. Origami's guidance, I began folding both halves separately from 6'x3' rectangles.  As you can probably guess, folding and shaping the scales took the most time, and even became mind-numbingly tedious at times. Work on this model progressed off and on throughout the monthes. After both halves were completed, I joined the two halves with tape and ran wires through the model such that it would hold it's shape. PVA glue was used to close the model. Of course, purists might argue that the use of tape, wire and glue might be taboo in origami. The wire and glue aren't absolutely necessary, but serve an important role for holding the model's pose and keeping it presentable. Additionally, the way the halves are taped together would make a complete square if you were to unfold the model. The kraft paper itself presented a few challenged in terms of thickness. Though it was pretty easy to fold, layers tend to build up around the neck and legs, making it tricky to manage. Also the scale tessellation ended up not being exactly uniform and minor buckling would occur around tight turns around the body. All in all after dozens of hours and tweaking details with MC, I feel this is as much as I can do for this model. 

That's one thing crossed off my bucket list. Though this was certainly quite the interesting project, I doubt I'll be undertaking something of this magnitude in the future! Man, Satoshi Kamiya can sure design his models.

Progress views
Preparing both halves: cahoonas.tumblr.com/post/91143…
Closing and posing: cahoonas.tumblr.com/post/91143…


 Update: He's now on display at the Paper Tree in San Francisco Japantown!