Salt Lake City Temple : Spires

Question

I'm trying to plan the tops of the spires for a lego replica of the salt lake city LDS temple. Here's a picture:

I figure I can use a technic ball joint for the round parts, or a ski pole for the top part but I can't use them together as there's no open axle on top of the ball joint. Is there any kind of sphere that a bar can be put through?

Answer 1

"Bar" items can fit into Technic "axle" hole. Based on that I have couple of options. Both are similar to Technic ball joint you've found, but have holes on both ends.

Technic Ball Joint with Through Axle Hole.

Technic Ball with Grooves

Answer 2

I'll suggest using 15395 2x2 dome bottom and 553 2x2 dome top. The dome top has a stud with hole on its end, which makes it very easy to place a ski pole, or a 1x2 plate to support a minifig:

There's downsides to this approach, though:

• The shape of the domes is not entirely round
• The 2x2 bottom dome in light grey colour is quite rare, and therefore relatively expensive in the aftermarket.

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Another option is to use 44358 3x3 ball turret socket and 44359 3x3 ball turret. These have been used as cannons in several Star Wars sets and should be easy to find.

The 3x3 ball turret provides an axle on top - in order to provide a stud for supporting a minifig, you may modify a 6587 3L axle with stud, cutting it down to 1L so it fits flush within the top part of the ball turret. I know cutting down parts is frowned upon by purists; and fitting the axle flush may make it hard to get it out.