This is the first of 2 red rhombic dodecahedra that form the thorax of the dragonfly. Use 14 balls and 24 short red struts [R1] to build this shape.
The rhombic dodecahedron can be seen as the outer shell of a 4-dimensional cube (projected into 3-dimensional space). Bees use rhombic dodecahedra as the unit cell in honeycomb, although that type should be modeled using yellow lines.
Step 3 - Eye Support A
5 super-short yellow struts [Y0] and 5 balls form the support for the dragonfly's compound eyes.
Hello!
Welcome to our May Model of the Month: Dragonfly was submitted by Kris Corriera and we consider it a celebration of the Divine Proportion in nature: "As I was looking at a picture of a dragonfly and admiring its geometry, it reminded me of golden ratios and of Zometool, so I started building." We hope you're inspired to start building too. Dragonfly is a wonderful tribute to the creative force of nature!
Add a second red rhombic dodecahedron using 10 balls and 20 short red struts [R1].
Make sure the two sections share the correct face!
PLEASE NOTE!
To enhance clarity, we will be displaying instruction images in “Phantom Mode”. This means that only the parts relevant to that step will be in color and the rest of the model will be grayed out.
Step 4 - Eye Support B
Add 2 pentagons using 2 balls and 10 super-short blue struts [B0]. These 2 pentagons become part of the 2 regular dodecahedra the represent the dragonfly's compound eyes.
Step 5 - Compound Eyes
Finish the compound eyes with 29 balls and 49 super-short blue struts [B0]. If you are not familiar with the regular dodecahedron, an easy way to build it is the "pincushion" method: put a short yellow strut [Y1] in every triangular hole in a ball, then put a ball on the end of each short yellow stut [Y1], and then connect the balls with super-short blue struts [B0].
Step 6 - Antennae
Build the antennae with 2 balls and 2 medium blue struts [B2].
Step 7 - Legs
Use 12 balls, 6 short blue struts [B1], 6 short yellow struts [Y1], and 6 short red struts [R1] to build legs on both sides of the dragonfly's thorax.
Step 8 - Tail Frame
Replace each of the short red struts [R1] of the rear diamond of the thorax with a super-short red [R0], ball, and hyper-short red strut [R00], so you can build a square of super-short blue struts [B0] to support the tail. Tail construction starts with a pyramid of 4 super-short yellow struts [Y0] and a ball from the square base, reinforced with 2 short yellow struts [Y1].
If you don't have hyper-short red struts, you can simply leave them out of the structure (it is plenty stable). Or, you can always build it one Golden Mean power larger (substitute medium struts for shorts, shorts for super-shorts, etc.)
Step 9 - Tail
The tail is a box beam of 10 body-centered cubes, using 49 balls, 80 super-short blue struts [B0] and 72 super-short yellow struts [Y0], in addition to the tail frame assembly in step 08.
Marc Pelletier makes brilliant use of this simple box beam structure in his "Eiffel Icosa" space frame system.
Step 10 - One Wing
Build the first wing with 30 balls, 10 super-short blue struts [B0], 9 short blue stuts [B1], 4 super-short yellow struts [Y0], 8 short yellow struts [Y1], 8 hyper-short red struts [R00], 13 super-short red struts [R0], and 2 short red struts [R1].
Again, if you don't have hyper-short red struts [R00], you can simply leave them out, or build a bigger version of the dragonfly!
Step 11 - Three More Wings and Supports
Now build 3 more wings exactly like the first one and attach them to the torso of the dragonfly model as shown. Because the wings are in the 2-fold [blue] plane, you can simply flip 2 of them over to attach to the other side of the torso.
Note that this is NOT the case with shapes in the 3-fold [yellow] of 5-fold [red] planes; for example, building up from one side of a pentagon (which lies in the 5-fold [red] plane) you get a dodecahedron, but from the other side you get a buckyball!
The supports consist of 16 balls, 12 medium blue struts [B2], positioned under the wings, and 4 super-short blue struts [B0], positioned under the tail, as shown.
Congratulations, you’re done!
If you are a purist, you can skip the supports and suspend the model from monofilament fishing line, as we did in February at our stand in the international toy fair in Nuremberg, Germany.
