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Many Airigami aircraft are constructed fairly much the same way. To that end, these are universal construction instructions, but where there are variations depending on the aircraft type, this will be denoted.
Now that you have printed the design of the model from the airigami website, it is time to construct the aircraft.
Step 1: Cutting
The first step is to extract the various
shapes from the page. You can use scissors, however for better results, a pen
knife or a Stanley or Exacto knife may be preferable. Cut carefully around all the shapes
on the page, making sure to keep to the outlines. Also, there are five cuts to
be made within the shapes themselves. The inside cuts are represented by yellow
shapes. Two are for the wings, two for the tailwings and one for the tail. For
the 717-, 727-, DC-9-, Fokker F28, F70, F100, MD-8X and MD-9X, series, there are also two for the rear engines
(the slots for the tailwings are in the tail itself).
Cut these out, following the grey outline, and removing all the yellow
components. If the aircraft livery is yellow, the inside cuts will be
represented by another color that obviously does not fit in with the airline
color scheme. Do not connect the cuts from the inside to the outside. The inside
incisions must be entirely autonomous.
Step 2: The Tail
The first component to put together is the
tail. Fold the tail at point 2A such that the two sides of the tail
congruently rest against each other. Make sure there is no overlap that can be
seen from either side of the tail. Then, fold at points 2B and 2C
such that the small flaps are folded against the colored side of the tail. Then,
reduce the angle to 90o between the flaps and the tail. Now, if
viewed from the front or back, the tail section should look like an upside-down
‘T’. Ensure that the tail is secured such that the two sides of the tail itself
are adhered together, either by gluing the insides or using tape on the outside
edges. Do not adhere the bottom flaps yet. Now, take the tail section and push it through the
rear middle incision on the body section. Push the tail section to the very front of
the incision. Now, adhere the bottom flaps to the inside of the body
section, so that the tail is secured through the incision, and that the entirety
of the colored section of the tail can be seen from either side.
Extra considerations for the 727-series
and L-1011:
Do not join points labelled 2D. Instead of pushing the tail to the front
of the incision, place it at the rear of the incision. Take the center engine,
and form a cylinder out of it such that it wraps around the turbine shape (which
is placed at the front of the engine) and the flaps meet, back-to-back. Now,
place the flaps in the front section of the tail incision, and adhere the flaps
inside the body section. Now, take points 2D of the tail, and 'wrap' them
around the rear of the center engine such that the tail and the center engine
become one continuous piece, with a smooth transition from engine to tail.
Extra considerations for the DC-10 and
MD-11:
Adhere the
"Support" sections of the Cradle back-to-back. Enter the flaps into the tail
slot as you would do with a tail on any other aircraft type. Push the "Cradle"
flaps outwards so that they form a "T" shape. Now, construct the tail and center
engine section and wrap the engine component around the turbine, creating a
cylinder under the tail. Now, place the engine (with tail pointing upwards) on
top of the cradle and adhere where necessary.
Step 3: The Body
The next step is to put the body together. Roll the body of the plane long-ways so that it forms a cylindrical shape. Attach the edges 1A to the edges 1B. Place the bottom flaps congruently on top of each other, with the flap marked ‘underlap’ under the other flap. Adhere the two flaps together. Make every effort to ensure that the flaps exactly match up exactly. The next step generally can only be done with tape. Cut about a dozen small strips of tape, about 1½ cm long and ½ cm wide. These will be used to put the nose section together. The model page actually has arrows drawn on it to show where the middle nose strip should be attached to the side edges of the body. Follow these arrows and attach a piece of tape across the middle strip, with each end of the tape attaching to the corresponding edges of the body sides at each attachment point. Follow the same procedure at the rear of the aircraft. In both instances, the middle strip from the top will overlap with the bottom middle strip. In all case, make sure that the top middle strip overlaps the bottom one. Adhere where necessary. Note: Although the design of the model is based on exact Boeing specifications, the weight allocation is not the same in a paper model to that of a real plane. Hence, the plane may tend to rest on its back, with its front wheel up. To combat this, before sealing up the fuselage section, insert some tissue rolled up densely into the front section of the plane ahead of the wings. This should alleviate the problem.
Extra considerations for the Boeing 747- series:
Due to the upper deck,
the body is a little more complicated. Make a cut between the two halves of the
rear half of the body, all the way up to the top deck. The tops of the two
halves at the rear are attached just like the bottoms, with one side slightly
overlapping the other to form a cylinder. When this is done, pull down the flap
at the back of the upper deck so that it meets the top of the rest of the body
and adhere where necessary.
Step 3: The Tail Wings
The next step is the tail wings. Fold at
points 3C such that the bottom sides of the tail wing section (the outer
quarters) come in under the two middle quarters, with the grey coloring facing
outwards. In doing so, this brings points 3A to meet 3B on both
sides of the tail wing section. Adhere the bottom sides to the top sides. From
the top, the tail wing section should look like an arrow. Now, make a
slight bend in the section at point 3D, such that viewed from the front
or back, the section forms a subtle ‘V’ shape. This is merely cosmetic and makes
the appearance of the tail wings more realistic. Now, push the tail wing section
through one of the incisions under the tail, and push it through the other
incision, such that an equal amount of the tail wing section is showing out
either side. The tail wings should be oriented such that if they were a
triangle, the apex would meet just under the front of the tail. Adhere the tail
wing section to the body section where necessary.
Extra considerations for the 717-, 727-,
DC-9-, Fokker F28, F70, F100, MD-8X and MD-9X series:
Push the tail wings through the incision at the top of the tail. Do not push the
tail wings through the body section - this is where the rear engine platform
will sit.
Step 4: The Wings
Fold the wings section such that the bottom halves are brought around to meet the top halves. Note that you should not make one fold between the top and bottom halves, but two, such that a very wide, slender triangle is formed between the two halves at the front of the wings, with the widest point at the body end, and the apex at the tips. The triangle fold is not repeated at the rear of the wings. Adhere the halves together. Now, push the wings section through one of the incisions in the middle of the body, and push the section through the other incision. The wings should show equally either side of the plane, with the wings displaying an almost identical angle as the tail-wings. Also attempt to form a subtle ‘V’ shape in the wings as viewed from the front, similar to, but more subtle than, the tail wings. Adhere where necessary.
Extra considerations for the 727-series:
The two sides of the wings
need to be joined. Place the half with the 'Top' rectangle designation on top,
and the half with the 'Bottom' rectangle at the under the 'Top' rectangle. The
rectangles must be on top of each other, but do not adhere them. Simply adhere
the free side of the rectangle to the free side of the other wing half. Make
sure that after joining the halves, the designations 'Top' and 'Bottom' are
still visible until the wing section is pushed through the body section.
Extra considerations for the 747-, 767-, 777-, A300-, A310-, A330-, A340-,
DC-10, MD-11, L1011 series:
The two sides of the wings
need to be joined. Place the two wings together, one rectangle on top of the
other. Adhere the rectangles together.
Extra considerations for the 737-800 and -900:
Fold at point 4A
such that the winglets face upwards at about 120o. Try to make the
fold subtle, though – the winglets tend to ‘hook’ up and look as if they are
blended into the ends of the wings.
Extra considerations for the Airbus A318/A319/A320/A321:
The Airbus A320
family has wing fences at the end of each wing. At each end of the wings, fold
at points 4A, 4B, such that the colored side is visible on both
sides, to form the wing fences. Bring point 4C around to meet
4D and adhere where appropriate. Repeat at both ends of the wings.
Step 5: The
Engines
This is the hardest section to explain,
and relies a lot on your ability. Essentially, what you want to do is make
cylinders out of the ‘Engine’ components, where by the ‘Turbine’ piece fits
snugly at the front of the Engine cylinder. Adhere the Turbine as best you can
at the front end 
of the cylinder. There is no scientific
way of doing it, unfortunately. When you make the cylinder shape out of the
engine component, make sure that the hook shape remains outside the cylinder.
Then, slide the Engine under the wing, at the point where the wing looks like
the picture, left. The hook part of the Engine slides above the wing,
within the ‘Y’ shape of the wing (shown in the picture, left). Essentially, the
engines should be no closer, but no more than about 1cm away from the body.
Adhere the hook to the top of the wing, and adhere the rest of the Engine to the
bottom of the wing. Next, take the ‘Exhaust’ sections, and make cone shapes out
of them. The cones should end up being just under 1cm long. Insert each cone
into the rear of the Engines and attach where necessary. Each cone should end
about ¾cm before the rear of the wing. Again, there is no better scientific way
of explaining the procedure. From the side, the completed engine should look
like the diagram, right.
Extra considerations for the
717-, 727-, DC-9-, Fokker F28, F70,
F100, MD-8X and MD-9X series:
The two rear engines remain
conjoined by a center platform. Form cylinders with both engines, bringing
points 5A to meet points 5C by folding at points 5B. Place
the turbines at the front of the engines. Also, bring the platform section
labelled 'Bottom' under the section labelled 'Top' to strengthen the platform.
Fold at point 5B in a opposite direction to which the engines were
folded. This engine section should be pushed through the rear incisions on the
body section where the tail wings would generally go on other types of aircraft.
The exhaust cone sections can be placed in the rear of the side engines, but
this really is optional.
Step 6: The Wheels
This final step will seem ridiculously simple in comparison to the last one. Make sure that you have three wheel components, two large and one small. Fold them at point 6A such that the insides are attached. Adhere between points 6A and 6B. Ensure the colored sides are showing. Then, fold at points 6B such that flaps are formed at a 90o angle to the main wheel stem, and that from the front or back appear as a ‘T’. Attach the flaps of the smaller wheel section under the body of the plane, level with the front door. Make sure that the wheel is centered and looks like a wheel from the side. You should just see a stick shape from the front or back. Next, follow a similar procedure with the larger wheels. Place each one under each wing, such that the flaps are adhered at the rear of the wing, in between the engine and the body. Note: Although the design of the model is based on exact Boeing specifications, the weight allocation is not the same in a paper model to that of a real plane. Hence, the plane may tend to rest on its back, with its front wheel up. To combat this, before sealing up the fuselage section, insert some tissue rolled up densely into the front section of the plane ahead of the wings. This should alleviate the problem. Optional: To support the weight of the middle more, consider cutting out a small triangle and placing one on each rear wheel, one side attached to the inside side of the wheel, the other to the underside of the wing or body.
Extra considerations for the A330-, A340, DC-10, MD-11
series:
Each of
these types have a center rear wheel. Attach the center wheel equally between
the two main rear sets, under the fuselage.
Extra considerations for the Boeing 747- series:
There are double the
number of rear wheel sets. Two must be placed under their respective wings, with
the remaining two (shorter) wheels being placed under the body just slightly
behind the two under-wing sets.
Congratulations. You have now built your model.
If you have any suggestions as to how to improve these instructions, or if you have any tips of your own to add, please send your suggestions to airigami@yahoo.com.
If you want to check out what your aircraft type looks like and hence what your model should look like, check out www.airliners.net.
