Compound of Eight Octahedra
Here is another uniform compound of uniform polyhedra. This is a compound of eight Octahedra and the whole compound has the same symmetry as an octahedron (S4xI). Many of these exists. You just place an octahedron in such a way it shares an order three axis with the final symmetry and then you apply the symmetries that are needed to obtain the final symmetry.
This position is special because a subcompound obtains a higher symmetry: A4xI. This is emphasised by using two colours. Each sub-compound is a compound of four cubes with A4xI symmetry. Since this is a uniform compound, such a sub-compound is uniform too.
This model is quite easy to build. The way I built it you will need to cut and paste 216 pieces. You could however decide to use 4 colours and give the octahedra that share an order 3 axis the same colour. In that case you would only need to cut and paste 144 pieces. The 3D model on the right contains some flickering faces. The way I solved that in the paper model is the reason for this difference.
The picture is copyrighted by PhotoArt Studio Hörby
Last Updated
2019-02-03