Robert Lang Dragonfly

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Scoopey
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Joined: July 24th, 2015, 8:10 am

Robert Lang Dragonfly

Post by Scoopey »

Hello folks - hope someone can help as I'm stuck on step 56 of Robert Langs Dragonfly...

As with a lot of his diagram complex steps seem to be done in a "before" and "after status with as minimal an explanation as necessary, almost like a teacher that assumes everyone else knows what they are thinking so don;t bother writing it down.

Simply valley folding the flap upwards does not create step 57 and the mention of two smaller points is no clue either. I'm sure there should be missing reverse fold lines or hidden lines as you cannot do that with one fold!

Thanks in advance, Steve C
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ahudson
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Re: Robert Lang Dragonfly

Post by ahudson »

Don't insult Robert Lang just because you don't understand what he wrote. He's very thorough, and this step is not missing any necessary information.

Also, you need to specify which book you're referencing; I know of at least three books with dragonflies designed by Robert Lang, and you're lucky that I am patient enough to bother looking through them to figure out which one this is (for anyone else reading along, it's from "Origami Insects and their Kin").

Now with that out of the way-- another way to think about step 56 is to imagine you're unfolding a preliminary base. As you fold the two front flaps up on the horizontal creases shown in the diagram, the points immediately behind them go out to the side as the "preliminary base" unfolds.
Scoopey
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Re: Robert Lang Dragonfly

Post by Scoopey »

OK thanks for that...
I actually write process engineering jobs for a living. I am therefore aware from my own feedback that people cannot always follow what I think are simple stages. I was not performing a personal attack on Mr Lang...many others have these complex stages which do not make sense. (These comments appear in many book reviews.) If everything was clear then there would be no need for forums!

Right I digress. I take it some of the earlier reverse folds undo? I can't be sure what I have until tonight because I save my original model Mk2 when I got to that point.
Scoopey
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Re: Robert Lang Dragonfly

Post by Scoopey »

Having gone back and tried again I ran into the same problem.
I have since realised that it is Step 45 that can lead people into problems...I reverse folded it on the straight edge both sides...the steps onwards seem to them match what was happening until things go strangely wrong at step 57.
For anyone else that is stuck....the reverse fold is sort off offset. The rear layers folds on as a diagonal valley fold whilst the front layers use a vertical fold.
This is where and X-ray view would really assist!
bethnor
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Re: Robert Lang Dragonfly

Post by bethnor »

ahudson wrote:Don't insult Robert Lang just because you don't understand what he wrote. He's very thorough, and this step is not missing any necessary information.
in fairness, i can think of at least three diagrams of his where there's an error, or things at the very least are not clear.

i don't think that needs to be taken as an attack, either. nearly all authors have some errors in at least one diagram.
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