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How to fold an origami blimp

Fold a long grey strip into a bar, fold the tail end over, slit it and swing out the top and bottom fins. Round the nose with corner folds, then hang a folded dark gondola and a propeller underneath.

You need: Grey: a 10 x 21 cm sheet. Dark grey: a 3.5 x 2.4 cm piece. Black: a 0.5 x 2 cm strip. Scissors, a glue stick, a white pen. Hard, 15 steps, about 25 minutes.

Steps

  1. Crease the middle. White side up, fold the long grey sheet in half, bottom edge up to the top edge.
  2. Open it. Unfold it again. The crease marks the middle line.
  3. Edges to the middle. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet on the middle crease. The front is all grey now.
  4. Fold the tail over. Fold the left end over to the right, on a crease 5 cm from the end.
  5. Slit the flap. Cut the folded flap along the middle crease, from its edge right up to the fold, so it opens into a top half and a bottom half.
  6. Swing out the fins. Fold the top half of the flap up and the bottom half down, each on a slant from the middle of the fold. They stick out as the fins.
  7. Round the nose. Fold the two front corners behind on slants, so the nose gets blunt.
  8. Round it more. Fold the four new little corners behind too, so the nose is smooth and round.
  9. Sweep the fins. On each fin, fold the outer front corner behind on a slant, and a thin sliver of the back edge above the body too. The fins now sweep back.
  10. Gondola: new sheet. Set the envelope aside. Take the dark grey piece, white side up.
  11. Gondola: in half. Fold it in half, top edge down to the bottom edge.
  12. Gondola: shape it. Fold the two bottom corners behind a little to round them, and the top front corner behind on a slant for the windscreen.
  13. Propeller: new strip. Set the gondola aside. Take the black strip, white side up, standing upright.
  14. Propeller: in half. Fold it in half lengthwise, right edge onto the left edge.
  15. Glue it together. Glue the gondola under the middle of the envelope and the propeller behind the gondola's back end.

Up, up and away!

Draw a row of white windows on the gondola and a white stripe along the middle of the envelope.

How to fly it

  1. Hang it from a thread so it drifts slowly over your room.
  2. Float it gently over a park you build from blocks.
  3. Make a matching banner to trail behind it.

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