Origami Weapons and Armour You Could Almost Take Into Battle

In this post we’re going to take a look at something new, origami weapons and armour. Believe it or not people have folded everything from swords to guns and a lot of these models are very impressive.

We’ll start off this post with this great paper tank photographed at a convention in South Korea.

Tank, Designed and Folded by Jang Yong Ik (Photo by origami-M-H-G)

Diagrams available in the 21st Tanteidan Convention book

Sebastian Arellano designed a really great origami katana. The katana itself is folded from a single square of paper and the scabbard is also folded from a single square of paper. If you use two coloured paper on the katana itself you get a different colour on the blade and that great pattern on the hilt.

Katana, Designed by Sebastian Arellano and Folded by Kyoung Su Kim

Crease pattern available from origami.artists.free.fr

This is a sea-saw with a peace sign on one side and gun on the other side. It’s based on this cartoon. The whole thing is of course folded from a single square of paper.

Peace > War, Designed and Folded by Neelesh K.

Instructions not available

Next we have this awesome origami Swiss Army Knife! The whole thing is folded from a single square of paper! The details are fantastic and it has everything from the cork screw to the Swiss cross logo.

Swiss Army Knife, Designed by Jun Maekawa and Folded by Eyal

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #67

Here we have a really impressive shield/coat of arms. It’s folded from a single 40cm x 40cm square of paper. You have to use paper with different colours on each side to see the pattern.

Firebird, Designed by Kikuchi Masato and Folded by Green Paper

Diagrams available in the 23rd Tanteidan Convention book

Mariano Zavala B. designed this really great origami sword.

Sword, Designed and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.

Instructions not available

Morisue Kei has designed what’s probably the most impressive and realistic looking origami gun out there. It’s folded from a single square of paper and if you use two coloured paper you get that different colour on the handle which is a nice touch.

Peacemaker, Designed by Morisue Kei and Folded by Kyoung Su Kim

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #126

This is a great looking Trojan helmet, especially with the gold and red coloured paper.

Trojan Helmet, Designed and Folded by Cahoonas

Crease pattern available from Cahoonas’ DeviantArt account

Next we have a paper version of the famous Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device. It’s technically a kind of gun so that’s why I’m including it in this post.

Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device, Designed and Folded by Finward

Instructions not available

This is the high-tech Exo-Suit from the movie District 9. There are a lot of really great details in this model and I especially like the claws.

District 9 Exo Suit, Designed and Folded by Paper in Dream

Instructions not available

Here’s another really great paper katana design.

Katana Azul, Designed and Folded by Finward

Photo diagrams available from Finward’s blog

Jared Needle designed this really great origami sniper rifle. It’s folded from one square of paper the colour changes in the design are excellent.

Sniper Rifle, Designed and Folded by Jared Needle

Instructions not available

Henry Phạm designed an excellent paper version of Captain America’s shield. As you can see the model is somewhat 3D and when you use two coloured paper you get a different colour on the star which looks really nice.

Captain America Shield, Designed and Folded by Henry Phạm

Video instructions available from Henry Phạm’s YouTube channel

Here’s Jun Maekawa’s excellent Swiss Army Knife again but folded by a different artist this time.

Swiss Army Knife, Designed by Jun Maekawa and Folded by Adriano Davanzo

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #67

This has to be the best and most realistic looking version of Kei Morisue’s Peacemaker I’ve seen.

Peacemaker, Designed by Morisue Kei and Folded by P. Colman

Diagrams available in Tanteidan Magazine #126

Here’s another really excellent Portal model that I just had to include in this post.

Portal Turret, Designed and Folded by Cahoonas

Crease pattern available from Cahoonas’ DeviantArt account

Alexander Krupnikov designed this great origami lightsaber. If you fold it big enough like you can see in the photo you can actually use it.

Sword of the Jedi, Designed and Folded by Alexander Krupnikov

Diagrams available in COS 2014

Here’s a different and also really fantastic origami gun design.

Pistol 2, Designed by Vicente Dolz and Folded by ВЕРЕСТУН Игорь (Iver)

Diagrams available in the AEP 2013 Convention book

Here’s another piece of armour, an incredibly fancy fantasy helmet. This whole helmet is folded from a single square of paper thats 1.3m x 1.3m and it starts with a regular Frog Base!

Fantasy Helmet, Designed and Folded by Andrey Ermakov

Instructions not available

This is another really great origami sword. This time it’s a Zanpakuto sword from the anime series Bleach.

Zanpakuto Sword, Designed by Agung Mahendra and Folded by Xu Daniel

Instructions not available

This next model is definitely one of the coolest ones I think I’ve ever seen. It’s a Diamondback Rattlesnake with an AR-15 and the whole thing is folded from a single square of paper with no cuts! It took 10-12 hours to fold and if you use two coloured paper like you see here you get some amazing details and colour changes.

Diamondback Rattlesnake with AR-15, Designed and Folded by Jared Needle

Instructions not available

If you’ve ever played Final Fantasy VII then you’ll definitely recognize Cloud’s iconic Buster Sword, this time in origami form.

Buster Sword, Designed and Folded by Tadashi Mori

Video instructions available from Tadashi Mori’s YouTube channel

Here’s another excellent tank folded out of dollar bills this time.

Tank, Designed by Won Park and Folded by Xun

Diagrams available in Extreme Origami: Transforming Dollar Bills into Priceless Works of Art

This is another really excellent Greek-style helmet.

Athenian Helmet, Designed and Folded by Alexander Kurth

Video instructions available from Alexander Kurth’s YouTube channel

Our final model is this absolutely fantastic origami katana. It’s based on Sebastian Arellano’s katana which we saw earlier but it’s been changed a bit to more resemble the sword from the anime Bleach.

Ichigo Kurosaki Bankai, Designed and Folded by Mariano Zavala B.

Instructions not available

That’s it for this post, let us know which one of these was your favourite in the comments!