The Origami Forum

Hi, i'm trying to make an origami beetle (preferably not too complicated as i'm no expert!) and i found this design:

http://home.no.net/origami/beetle1.htm

I'm really stuck at the beginning of the second page though, could anyone help? Or point me in the direction of alternative beetle designs?

Thanks!

At which step are you having troubles exactly?

um... well, from the first step of the second page (10) as i'm not sure i'm doing it right!
I carried onto step 12 but then really got stuck as i'm not convinced of what i was doing...
Sorry about the vagueness!!!

I've made a video of steps 10 - 12. Hope it helps.
Some notes:
The reverse folds in step 10 are on existing creases.
For steps 11 and 12 you will have to make most of the creases. (I cheated in the video by premaking those folds in order to make the video shorter and smoother )

<embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/iZq-G0JGUUU" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"></embed>

Thank you so much for the video!
that was extremely helpful, i realise i was making a small mistake in step 12...
I will start again tomorrow and see how it goes, i have a feeling i might get stuck again judging by the next steps, but hopefully i will be able to get to the end on my own now

thanks again!

I like this beetle a quick fold.
you can make a half decient spider out of it if you step # 14 twice. The legs coume out a bit stumpy so it looks like a taranchula.

Yes, the base for this beetle is very versatile because you get 12 flaps with about the same length and thickness rather easily. And the flaps aren't really that thick (i.e. they don't have many layers) either.
I'm gonna play around with the base a bit and see what I can come up with

hi, it's been a long time but i have been really busy and i've only just managed to find the time to post this last question...
I finished the beetle (! ) but, i am not sure about how I have swivel folded the wings... could you help by showing me how it's done? My model looks a bit wrong...

thanks so much!

As far as I remember I just swivelled the wings to a position that seemed right to me. There are no clear landmarks for this fold so just move the wing around until you like it.
After all, in nature you will never find two beetles that look exactly the same, so it doesn't really matter if it looks different from the original model as long as you like it (I always use that excuse.... )

If I can find it again I will post a picture of my finished beetle later.

It's a good excuse if you could post the pic that would be great, so i can see if mine look anything like they are meant to!
Thanks for everything

Here it is, not a very good picture though...

I've tried to fold this twice, and keep running into a problem at the same step.

On step 26, it says to swivel fold the wing cases down. My problem is there is a layer of paper inside where the head will be. I can't swivel fold the wings down without tearing the paper out of there. I must be doing something wrong at an earlier step.

Old topic, I know, but does anyone remember how to do that part?