All models

How to fold an origami roadrunner

A strip cut free along the back tapers into the long beak, and a tapered pleat lifts the long tail level. A fan folded three times and cut once opens into a shaggy crest; folded legs stride.

You need: A brown 15 cm square, white on the back; dark brown 9 × 3 cm; a dark brown 6 cm square; a blue-grey strip 12 × 1.2 cm; scissors, glue, pens. Hard, 21 steps, about 45 minutes.

Steps

  1. Fold in half. Brown square, white side up, turned like a diamond. Fold the top corner down to the bottom corner. The long fold on top is the back.
  2. Crease a strip. Fold the top edge down 9 mm along its whole length, through all the layers, and crease it hard.
  3. Open it. Unfold the strip again. You will cut along its crease to free the beak.
  4. Cut the bird. Cut along the crease from the right edge to 5 cm right of the middle; cut the strip to a long point. Round the head, keep the belly flat, taper to a long tail.
  5. Pleat: fold in. 4.5 cm left of the middle, fold the tail over to the right on a line from the bottom edge up to the back, leaning left.
  6. Pleat: fold out. Fold it back to the left from the same bottom point, on an upright line. The tail now tips up a little.
  7. Lean it forward. Tip the bird so the head rises on the right. The lifted tail now sticks straight out level behind.
  8. Wing: new sheet. Set the body aside. Cut the dark brown piece into a long wing, round at the shoulder and pointed at the tail end.
  9. Crest: new sheet. Set the wing aside. From the dark brown square cut a wedge 3 cm long with its point at the bottom right.
  10. Fold in half. Fold the wedge in half from its point, one side over onto the other.
  11. In half again. Fold it in half again from the point, the edges over onto the first fold.
  12. And again. Fold it in half once more the same way, to a thin wedge. Crease hard.
  13. Cut the crest. Cut from 1.2 cm up each side of the thin wedge to one point in the middle of the far end.
  14. Open it out. Unfold the last fold.
  15. Open again. Unfold the next fold.
  16. Open flat. Unfold the last fold too: a shaggy crest of eight dark spikes.
  17. Legs: new sheet. Set the crest aside. Take the blue-grey strip, slanting down to the left.
  18. Fold the strip. Fold it in half lengthwise, one long edge over onto the other, so it is a thin, strong strip.
  19. Two legs. Fold the top half down to the right on a crease across the middle, so it reaches out ahead: one leg forward, one leg back.
  20. Feet. Fold the last 1.1 cm of the back leg out to the left, and of the front leg out to the right: toes running along the ground.
  21. Glue it together. Glue the legs' middle fold behind the belly. Glue the wing along the side and the crest's point behind the top of the head.

Meep! Off it zooms

Colour the beak dark and draw an eye with a white ring. Dot white streaks on the wing, colour the chest white and draw speed lines behind.

What to fold next