Iron Builder: Hammer & Spanner LEGO® building techniques

It's easy to look at a MOC and think, wow, that's beautiful... without appreciating all the astonishing connection techniques involved. Especially in a LEGO® contest like Iron Builder's Iron Forge where the brilliance is steadily poured into your eyeballs on a daily basis. I find it can even be a bit intimidating: how on earth could I ever build that well? Here's one by #1 Nomad:

So we've partnered with Iron Builder to break things down a little for you and reveal some of the techniques used by these amazing builders in the hope it inspires you, and improves everyone's game. We chatted with some of the talented competitors who made the Top 20 last week to ask how they used the seed parts, which were two classic Minifigure Utensil Tools: the Spanner Wrench / Screwdriver (Design IDs 4006 & 88631) and Mallet / Hammer (Design ID 4522).


There's something here for everyone, from basic, common connections to advanced techniques with rare old LEGO pieces but they all probably have one thing in common – illegality!

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Brickbuilt Replicas: I think it’s worthwhile to mention the basic connection that the wrench fits around a stud:

PaulvilleMOCs: Yes, like on madLEGOman‘s crab, and I used that to create the effect of the castor wheels on my tool chest:

PaulvilleMOCs: It can also act as a stud-to-stud direction reversal (like where a LOTR ring or handcuffs are often used). I saw that was used in Vaionaut’s scissorlift:

Cab ~: I used this as well, for White Diamond's knuckles.

Ted A.: Here's a limited-use connection: put the wrench through tank tread holes. There is a flange on the underside of the tread that doesn't let much else pass through.



modestolus (Ben): The wrench fits perfectly with the Scala Curtain Rod 11L. I used it in this MOC:

PaulvilleMOCs: The wrench also clips around the middle of a telescope piece very well:

madLEGOman: And binoculars too; see at the front here:

madLEGOman: And shown behind that: you can clip the wrench onto the hammer, and also onto a Technic bush by clipping it onto the grooves.

thomas_jenkins_bricks: I used that Technic bush connection on the underside of my ski speeder. I noticed that connection quite late in the competition.

PaulvilleMOCs: You can out a wrench onto a clip to get cool angles, like in the pole on my model of Flappy from the LEGO Club Show:

PaulvilleMOCs: The width of the hammerhead is the same as the height of a brick, so for example you can put them back to back into bricks with holes in the studs (headlight, Technic, etc.)

Vaionaut: And the hammer is one plate thick, just as thick as the bar. So I hammered the keys of my organ!

#1 Nomad: And that's why you can fit four of them in the back of a 1x2 tile.

I never ended up using that, but it's definitely a neat thing. Thomas used it for the hands of his droid, but with a jumper rather than a tile:

Vaionaut: Here are basically all the wrench connections I used in my entries, plus an extra one on the right:

midian454: I used the technique on the right in my clawed hand! That was a nice discovery.

PaulvilleMOCs: I used the Technic pin one as well, on the motion capture base of the T-Rex:

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Thanks to the builders for taking the time to share this great info! We highly recommend following them: Brickbuilt Replicas, PaulvilleMOCs, Cab ~, Ted A., modestolus (Ben), madLEGOman, thomas_jenkins_bricks, Vaionaut, #1 Nomad and midian454.

Next time on New Elementary, another competitor jaapxaap will discuss one of his Iron Forge models in more detail. In the meantime here is a wrench seed part starter idea from PaulvilleMOCs and jaapxaap to inspire you: how about beginning a model by combining wrenches with paddle-shaped parts 3900 and/or 32828?

READ MORE: Iron Forge is now down to the Top 8 and this week's part is the stud shooter! Join the Discord chat to see all entries as they come in

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