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How to fold an origami bulldozer

Fold a yellow strip and reverse-fold its back end up into a cab. Pleat and round a black track, cut a curved blade, then add a push arm and an exhaust.

You need: Yellow paper 28 × 20 cm, a yellow piece 6.5 × 11.5 cm, a yellow strip 14 × 2.5 cm, a black strip 27 × 11 cm, a black scrap, scissors and glue. Hard, 18 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Edges to the middle. Start white side up, long side across. Fold the top and bottom edges in to meet along the middle.
  2. Fold in half. Mountain-fold it in half along the middle, so the top half goes behind. Now it is a thick strip, yellow inside and out.
  3. Slope the hood. Cut the top front corner off on a slant, so the engine hood slopes down at the front.
  4. Cab. Outside-reverse-fold the long back end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge, wrapping it round the strip. It stands up as the cab.
  5. Shape the cab. Cut the cab's top front corner on a slant for the windscreen, and snip the back corner of the roof round.
  6. Exhaust: new sheet. Set the body aside. Take the little black scrap, white side up.
  7. Exhaust: in half. Fold it in half the long way, so it is a thin black pipe.
  8. Blade: new sheet. Set the exhaust aside. Take the yellow piece, white side up, long side upright.
  9. Blade: in half. Fold the right edge over to the left edge, so the blade is yellow on both sides.
  10. Blade: curve it. Snip the top and bottom corners on the left side off on a slant, so the blade curls forward at both ends.
  11. Push arm: new sheet. Set the blade aside. Take the yellow strip, white side up.
  12. Push arm: in half. Fold it in half the long way, so it is a narrow yellow bar.
  13. Track: new sheet. Set the arm aside. Take the big black strip, black side up, long side across.
  14. Track: in half. Fold the bottom half behind, the long way.
  15. Track: pleat. Fold the left end over to the right on an upright crease 9 cm from it. Fold the right end over to the left the same way, 8 cm from it.
  16. Track: pleat back. Fold each end back out on a crease 1 cm nearer the end. The two pleats leave ridges across the track, like chunky links.
  17. Track: round the ends. Cut all four corners round through all the layers, in small snips, so both ends of the track curve like a real crawler track.
  18. Build the bulldozer. Glue the body behind the top of the track and the exhaust behind the hood. Glue the blade at the front and the arm from the track's middle to the blade.

Push it!

Draw white wheels in the track, a cab window, a grille, the blade's black edge and a ram. Push a pile of paper scraps across the table!

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