SnipFold

Lowland Crocodile

A long-snouted crocodile with a broad low belly, four splayed supporting feet, tapering ground tail and twin rows of raised armor.

Materials

  • 180-220 gsm cardstock
  • Scissors or craft knife
  • Scoring tool and ruler
  • PVA paper glue

Finished size: 230 x 90 x 30 mm

Steps

CutValley foldMountain foldGlue area

  1. Cut and score

    Print at 100%; confirm the 50 mm ruler. Cut each numbered piece once. Score dashed folds before cutting small scutes. All dimensions below are mm. Keep every integral 3 mm tab; do not cut along fold lines.

  2. Close the low body

    BODY is 86 long, 50 wide and 18 high. With the colored top facing out, fold all eight walls down 90 degrees, then fold their 3 mm tabs inward 90 degrees. Glue BODYB beneath those tabs, matching the beveled corners. Press with a ruler until set; butt wall edges without overlapping them.

  3. Make four supporting feet

    Fold each foot wall down 90 degrees and its 3 mm sole tabs inward 90 degrees; glue its matching B sole beneath the tabs. Each foot is 8 high and reaches 26 sideways from its root. Front feet sweep toward the nose; rear feet sweep toward the tail. Let all four closed feet dry on a flat table.

  4. Set the broad stance

    Use x=0 at the body nose end, x=86 at the tail end, and y=0 on the centerline. Glue the inner 6 mm of each foot TOP under BODYB: front roots x=12..28, rear roots x=60..76, at y=19..25 and y=-25..-19. Outer foot edges reach y=+45 and -45. Keep all soles on the table as the glue dries; the belly is 8 above the table. The four closed feet are the load-bearing supports.

  5. Build and attach the long snout

    Fold HEAD walls down 90 degrees and sole tabs inward 90 degrees; glue HEADB under them. The snout is 64 long, 38 wide at the root, 22 wide at the nose, and 12 high. Glue its complete 38 x 12 rear wall to the body front wall, bottom edges flush at 8 above the table. Its top sits 6 below the back. Hold this face-to-face joint until set before releasing the overhang.

  6. Fit the tapering tail

    Close TAIL with TAILB using the same 90-degree walls and inward 3 mm tabs. The tail is 80 long and narrows from 32 to 4 wide. Rest its sole on the table and glue the upper 8 mm of its 32 mm-wide root wall against the body rear wall, centered at x=86. The lower half of the root remains below the belly. This broad root joint and the ground-contact tail supplement the four feet.

  7. Add the raised eye housings

    Fold and close the two 9 x 6 x 5 eye boxes with their matching B soles. Glue soles onto the snout top, 4 mm forward of the body joint: x=-13..-4, y=10..16 and -16..-10. Eyes rise to 25 above the table.

  8. Place pupils and nostrils

    Glue each 3 x 4 pupil centered on an eye-box top, 3 mm from its nose-facing edge and 1 mm from each side. Glue the 4 x 3 nostrils on the snout top 6 mm behind the nose tip, at y=5..8 and -8..-5.

  9. Raise the paired dorsal armor

    For each scute, valley-fold the two 3 mm feet and mountain-fold the center ridge. Set the two feet flat, with a 6 mm gap between their inner edges: the two 5 mm slopes then rise exactly 4 mm. Glue both complete feet. Place four 12 mm-long ridges per row at x=9,27,45,63, with ridge centerlines y=+9 and -9 on the back. Place the two tail ridges at x=91 and 109, y=0. All ridges run nose-to-tail; open triangular ends are intentional.

  10. Dry the stable low pose

    Leave the four foot soles and tail sole on a level surface while all joints dry. Do not lift by the snout or scutes. No internal supports, wire or ballast are required by this design. Physical print, cut and assembly verification remains pending.

Notes

The 3D model shows each piece in its finished, idealized shape; the exploded view only spreads the pieces apart. It is not a paper-physics simulation: curved shapes are forming guides, not exact physical folding or proof of developability, and intermediate fold shapes are not supplied.