Gallery: Fold a Paper R2-D2 and Other Awesome Star Wars Origami
01x-wing
Martin Hunt was studying math at Southampton University when he decided to start designing origami *Star Wars* vessels. He became obsessed with the X-wing, and then quickly moved on to other ships and droids — lots of others. He's now got more than 20 creations from the franchise on his website, [starwarigami.co.uk](http://www.starwarigami.co.uk/index.html), and a list of 83 more for future designs. He attributes some of his proficiency to his math degree, saying origami isn't just art, it's also science. "The rules of what you can do with a single square of paper are fixed," he says. "It's not just a case of putting brush to paper and letting your imagination run riot." Hunt is taking his creations to the wider world. In October, he exhibited some large-scale versions at the [London MCM Expo and Comic Con](http://www.londonexpo.com/), and he's seeking a publisher for a book. But he's sharing some of his designs already, through his website and on YouTube. He's not the only one out there doing it — Chris Alexander of [starwarsorigami.com](http://www.starwarsorigami.com/) just released a book — but Hunt's designs veer toward the more complicated and intricate. He recommends them for intermediate to advanced origami artists, but that didn't stop us from [trying our inept hands at the Naboo Starfighter](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/design/2012/11/starwarigami/?pid=1139). X-wing ------ What else but the X-wing could have been Hunt's first origami starfighter? He began with the base from a traditional origami frog, and took the ship through three iterations before settling on the version pictured. He's also offered [step-by-step instructions](http://www.starwarigami.co.uk/diagrams.html) to building the first edition (see steps 1-17 below). "The use of the colored side of the paper to form the stripe on the wings was more luck than judgement," he adds. 
02half-of-the-droids-you-are-looking-for
__R2-D2__ Everybody's favorite droid makes an appearance in Hunt's gallery, of course. (If C-3PO is your favorite droid, you're doing it wrong.) Hunt went so far as to [bring this little R2 unit](http://www.starwarigami.co.uk/1/post/2012/07/lfcc.html) to the 2012 London Film and Comic Con, where it had the chance to meet Kenny Baker, the actor who played the little droid. While some of Hunt's easier designs can be made in 15 minutes, R2-D2 can take up to two hours — a long time for a form that's based off a paper square draped over his finger. But it's not just a crumpled tube; Hunt used precise geometrical patterns to pleat the body, align the holo projector and utility tool, and lock the whole thing down.
03all-terrain-armored-transport
__AT-AT__ The crease pattern for Hunt's AT-AT walker is available on his page, but to the non-initiated, it looks like a mess of square and diagonal lines. It's more of a reference for Hunt than a how-to, but he uses blue and red lines to indicate "mountain" and "valley" folds, respectively. "To recreate one of my designs, I start by pre-creasing the paper in all the right places, and then try and collapse the paper into the model's base, which can be a very frustrating process, involving clothes pegs, an extra pair of hands, and a lot of patience," Hunt says. "But once you get enough of the base into position, it reaches a critical mass and the rest can just fall into place naturally." 
04less-than-12-parsecs
__Millennium Falcon__ The challenge in creating Solo's ride was hitting the right proportions for the cockpit and the satellite dish, says Hunt. He wound up feeding a flap from the bottom up through the model, in order to get the dish on top.
05hailfire
__Hailfire Droid__ Say what you will about the prequels, but those Hailfire Droids were pretty badass. What's even more impressive is that Hunt folded this replica from half a sheet of paper — albeit really large paper. He recommends you use the remaining 33 inch by 16.5 inch sheet to build the [Vulture Droid](http://www.starwarigami.co.uk/vulture-droid.html).
06nabooooo
__Naboo Starfighter__ The Naboo Starfighter is based off the folding pattern of a traditional crane. "With these kind of models, there's still a lot of expression and improvisation going on," Hunt says. "You're taking a design that has a similar underlying structure to your target model, and molding it and shaping it to get the desired result, like a sculptor." It's also the first model with a [video tutorial](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccBv_eP4rEo), which proved to be a crucial component when we attempted to fold our own Starfighter. Watch our best effort below. <script language="JavaScript" src="http://admin.brightcove.com/js/BrightcoveExperiences.js" type="text/javascript"></script> <object class="BrightcoveExperience" id="myExperience1949219261001"><param name="bgcolor" value="#FFFFFF"></param><param name="width" value="660"></param><param name="height" value="380"></param><param name="playerID" value="1577029897001"></param><param name="playerKey" value="AQ~~,AAAAAF1BIQQ~,g5cZB_aGkYZC26fBYKv5Nsnal0IamyGL"></param><param name="isVid" value="true"></param><param name="isUI" value="true"></param><param name="dynamicStreaming" value="true"></param><param name="@videoPlayer" value="1949219261001"></param></object> <script type="text/javascript">brightcove.createExperiences();</script>
07tie-fighter
__TIE Fighter__ You can fold the TIE fighter in any color you want, as long as it's black. For this model — and for the droids — Hunt had to create the underlying architecture himself.
08its-a-trap
__B-Wing__ It's not a stretch to imagine the B-Wing came from the base for a crane, and it's even more obvious if you look at Hunt's first attempt (below). For the newer version, he used a technique called "strip grafting," a complicated technique using his crease pattern to scale the model slightly smaller, thus giving him relatively more space to work with. That gave him the extra paper — proportionally — that he needed for the cockpit and tail gun. 
09endor-shuttle
__Imperial Shuttle__ As challenging as these are to build, developing the designs from scratch requires a fundamental understanding of origami. Still, Hunt can offer some insight into the creative process. "My starting point with the Imperial Shuttle was the desire to get a clear separation between the tail fin and the body of the ship, something that is lacking in all other representations of it that I have seen to date," he says. "Having worked out how to do that, the rest of the model fell into place quite quickly."
