Truncated Icosahedron

The truncated icosahedron is another of Tomoko Fuse's modular creations. This is from her book Unit Polyhedron Origami. The model is fairly easy to do. It rather reminds me the origami football I had folded nearly a year back!

The model is made of a combination of hexagonal flat units and connecting units that connect the hexagonal units. Usually modular units have a pocket and a tab - each tab fits into its adjacent unit. But in these models, the hexagonal shapes have 3 pockets and no tabs. So the connecting units fit into the pockets of adjacent hexagons and hold the model together.

I like the little windows in the model as well :) Also, though the backs of the hexagons can be seen through the windows, the reverse side of the paper is not seen in the completed unit. So single-sided paper works perfectly well. I had used 80 gsm paper which turned out to be great for this model. The completed truncated icosahedron is sturdy - so sturdy, in fact, that my brother suggested we use it as a football! 😮

Model Details:

Model: Truncated Icosahedron

Creator: Tomoko Fuse

Book: Unit Polyhedron Origami
 
Author: Tomoko Fuse
 
Difficulty Level: Low Intermediate

Paper Ratio: Square

Paper Size: 3.5 inches for the hexagons; 1.75 inches for the connectors

Model Size: ~5 inches in diameter

Modules: 50