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How to fold an origami crane truck

Fold one long red sheet into a strip and pleat a joint into its back end. Reverse-fold the front up as the cab and the back up into a long boom over it, then bend the tip down as the hook.

You need: Red paper 32 × 10 cm, two 5 cm black squares, glue and a white pen. Hard, 18 steps, about 35 minutes.

Steps

  1. Edges to the middle. Start white side up. 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 long thick strip, red on both sides.
  3. Boom joint: fold over. Fold the long back part over to the right, front and back layers together, about a third of the way from the back end.
  4. Boom joint: fold back. Fold it straight back a finger's width further along, leaving a pleat. The boom now looks like it slides out in two parts.
  5. Cab. Outside-reverse-fold the short front end straight up, on a 45° crease from the bottom edge. It stands up as the cab.
  6. Windscreen. Fold the top front corner of the cab behind on a slant, for a sloping windscreen.
  7. Boom. Outside-reverse-fold the long back end up and forward, so it rises at a slant over the cab and reaches past the front.
  8. Hook. Bend the tip of the boom straight down over itself, in front of the cab. It hangs like the cable and hook.
  9. Hook block. Fold the two bottom corners of the hanging end behind, so it looks like a rounded hook block.
  10. Back wheel: new sheet. Set the truck aside. Take a black square, white side up.
  11. Back wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to meet in the middle.
  12. Back wheel: hubcap. Fold each point back out a little, so a small white square shows in the middle. That's the hub.
  13. Back wheel: round it. Fold the four points of the square a little way behind, so the wheel looks round.
  14. Front wheel: new sheet. Set the back wheel aside and take the other black square, white side up.
  15. Front wheel: corners in. Fold all four corners in to the middle.
  16. Front wheel: hubcap. Fold each point back out a little for the hub.
  17. Front wheel: round it. Fold the four points behind to round it off.
  18. Build the truck. Glue the wheels on, half showing below: one under the foot of the boom, one under the cab.

Lift it up!

Draw a white window on the cab and a black hook under the block. Hang a paper parcel on it and swing it up onto a shelf!

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