Make yourself a Mobile from Platonic Polyhedra

To make this model you will need:

• A printer
• Some method of cutting out paper or thin card
• Quick-drying paper glue
• thin thread for hanging the polyhedra
• thin plastic drinking straws
• Either
  • A RISCOS computer
  • !SparkPlug (from David Pilling)
• Or an Acrobat PDF reader

Download the zipped Draw file (9K) and unpack it with !SparkPlug or the PDF (8K); then follow the directions below to make the model on the left. It is made from two different coloured parts, you may want to change the colours or the decorate them using Draw, or duplicate the Draw file to make several different coloured models.
Print the Draw files [PDF pages] onto stiff paper. If possible print each part onto different coloured paper to make the model more interesting.

Cut out all five plans on the two sheets with scissors around the outside solid lines.

Score along the dashed lines with a compass point and a ruler.

Fold up along the dashed lines.

Glue a length of thread to the lettered side of one of the faces near to a vertex.

Glue each tab to the face with the same letter using quick-drying glue leaving the face without tabs until last. The letters and lines should be inside the model and the thread come out of a vertex.

Get some thin plastic drinking straws and cut off lengths to make the horizontal supports for the mobile (see figure above).

Attach the threads to the straws with slip knots, gluing the ones at the ends to the straws.

Adjust the central threads until the mobile balances and then glue these.