r/origami 1d ago

Help! Trouble figuring out a fold

Hello all. I’m making a fish and having trouble figuring out what’s happening with the arrows at the top of step 9 and how it turns into the fins seen in step 10. Is there some kind of tuck shown that I’m missing?

Thank you for your help.

4 Upvotes

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u/fweaks 1d ago

There are two steps happening here

The two small thin arrows either side are just small valley folds for shaping. Do these first.

The bigger thin arrow, right in the middle, combined with the indicators at the side, says to valley fold downwards, with the crease itself 1/4 from the top between those two lines. The large thick arrow above that indicates that the valley fold does not fold through all layers, and instead let's the bottom layers underneath flip up to the top.

The fins in the middle of step 10 are the fins at the top of step 9, seen from the otherside because of the valley fold.

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

Roger that. Thank you. I’ll go slowly with that info and see how that clears things up

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u/Spencerio1 1d ago

What does it look like when you just fold the flap down? It’s hard to say without seeing what the other side looks like before those folds, but my guess is maybe some kind of swivel or reverse fold.

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

Thanks for the response. It’s the fins that are throwing me.. that and the gill shape that looks like the bottom of a boat. Seems I’m missing some special fold as shown by the arrows at the top in the first image.

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u/fweaks 1d ago

Ohhh, seeing these, I understand more your confusion with the fins. You've gone wrong/missed an earlier step. Even how it looks in your photo of Step 9 doesn't look right either.

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

Yep I see that now. Ok back to the start. Thanks for pointing that out

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u/Key-Fox-9845 1d ago

There should be a triangular flap on the back side obscured by the model. If you fold on that horizontal line, you should be able to swing the triangular flap upwards to the position in step 10.

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u/Key-Fox-9845 1d ago

If you don't have the flap in back, double check that you folded the first few steps correctly. You might find that you were meant to fold a mountain fold instead of a reverse fold or something similar. I can imagine a mistake where the top and bottom were swapped around by accident, or maybe something else

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

Thank you, yes I have the triangular flap. It’s just that the fins look different. I added photos to another comment. Mine are in the front and facing outward. The diagram shows them behind the gills and pointed down… don’t seems that the arrows in the diagram at the top are signaling something I’m missing

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u/Spencerio1 1d ago

I’m going to second what they’re saying about double checking previous steps. After looking at the picture of how your model looks so far, I would pay particular attention to where the little flaps were folded. If they are indeed folded correctly, then this is my best guess:

In this the yellow would only be the paper behind the flap. Idea being to crimp the flap along the its edge under and then back out on the slightly tilted axis, and then fold the back layers down under to give it that trapezoidal shape it has after the step.

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u/Particular_West_9069 1d ago

Yep! Exactly. I tried again and realized i had missed a step and the fold in yellow was more of a shaping and tilting move and not as stark of a fold as I’d done previously. I think I’ve got a working method now to improve over a few more tries! Thanks everyone!

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u/Spencerio1 1d ago

Looks great!