Young Giant American Millipede (2025)
Folded from one uncut piece of red and black paper
Crease pattern: Below
Diagrams: Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Young Millipede: The Best I’ll Probably Ever Do

Believe it or not, this is the *small* version of a full-sized millipede model, which deserves its own (very long) post. (The reason I’m calling this a Young Millipede is because millipedes add two pairs of legs each time they molt, so this one is on the young side for the species!) Millipedes have long been a fascination of mine. Seeing them in the wild across the world, I’ve come to appreciate the many different sizes, shapes, and colors they come in.

As a precocious teenager, I wanted to design a millipede with an impressive number of legs (which believe it or not, I DID). That teenager would probably balk at the paltry 64 legs + antennae here, but it still took several weeks to fold and stretched me to the limit of how large a sheet of paper I’m willing to deal with. And in the end, this model reminds me of some millipedes I’ve seen crossing sidewalks over the years in that unique way they chug along.

If you do plan to fold a Young Millipede, either start from a 56ths grid and plan to do a lot of thinning, or fold a 112ths grid right away to get it over with (I did the former). Use a very strong paper with an orange-red on one side for its legs, antennae, and… guts, and a metallic black on the other for its shell. I would highly recommend starting with an entirely red piece of paper and sliding in a strip of black paper near the end of the folding process along the top quarter. And please, take lots of breaks. I sure did.