[MOC] Darth Maul's Scimitar (aka the Sith Infiltrator) Minifig scale with full interior

[Evilkirk]

I'm absolutely delighted to present Darth Maul's Scimitar, or Sith Infiltrator - 100% minifig scale with a fully detailed interior! 

Build features: Semi-circular opening rear doors with a retractable boarding ramp lead into the lower floor of the main hull, where you'll find a fold-down bunk, a laser-gated holding cell and various storage compartments. A 'repulsor-lift elevator' takes you to the upper floor which is the flight deck, with passenger seating and Darth Maul's control console.
From the lower floor a corridor narrows down into a maintenance crawl-space and leads through to various engineering access chambers - and eventually takes you out into the cargo hold, where the Bloodfin speeder and Dark Eye probe droids are stored. An access ramp lowers from the cargo hold (under the very front of the ship) + 2 panels under the ship's hull open for retractable landing gear with a fold-out landing pad under the main hull. The roof of the rear section is removable + the flight deck can also be lifted out to allow access to the lower floor + the whole roof of the front section is hinged to open fully, revealing some of the cloaking shield, hyperdrive and other engine components.

I've designed a 306-piece tilted stand to display the ship in 'wings open' flight mode - the front of the display stand is fitted with a black 8 x 16 tile, for those who like to have custom UCS plaques on their ships.  The display stand + Bloodfin Speeder + Dark Eye probe droids are all FREE downloads on my Rebrickable page :)

During 18 months of it's building and design, I've spent hours studying source material for this ship, especially the floorplans - and I've put a lot of effort into keeping it as close to the original as possible without the whole ship becoming overly large. Having the correct proportions with its incredibly unbalanced front and rear sections + those large folding solar panels on the sides was very challenging - and keeping it all sturdy without any sag was quite a task, but it's turned out to be a solid build - you can swoosh this ship around until your arm hurts (I have!) and it'll be fine :) 

Specifications: This build uses 4244 pieces (not including the display stand, speeder or droids), is 63.4cm (25") long and 48cm (18.9") wide at the wing panels. Height is 18cm (7.1") standing on its landing gear + 42cm (16.6") high at the tip of the highest wing panel whilst in flight mode on the display stand.  Weight is approximately 3.3kg (7.28 lb).

TL,DR... I totally geeked out and went nuts on the details and here are a million pics of the results:

 

[ArrowBricks]

Congrats! Love this. 

[Evilkirk]

15 hours ago, ArrowBricks said:

Congrats! Love this. 

Thank you! 😊 

[lowlead]

Great looking Scimitar!

You have accomplished so much here, where other MOCs fall short.  I'll try to avoid typing a giant TLDR post, but here's what I really like:
- You absolutely nailed the color scheme.  The dark/light grey treatment and patterns are spot-on.
- Near, but not 100% studless design.  Your choice to build out the wing roots in a 'studs sideways' orientation is a great feature.  I like a few studs here and there!
- Very effective use of those hinged light grey panels at the fuselage-to-wing area!
- A truly 'screen accurate' minifig interior, complete with the two level [somehwhat] spherical cabin section and the utility crawl space - with the Bloodfin speeder, no less!!
- The aft boarding hatch and engine exhaust area look great - very close to the ILM design.
- The double-jointed folding wings are the perfect shape, and the detail looks great - just enough, not overdone.  Love it!

Which brings me to a couple nitpicks.  Don't take this the wrong way, because I love this MOC....

The prow.  it's very THICC.  So much so, it's a feature I can't warm up to.  Of course, to make room for this amazing interior, you required more room.  But every bit of source material I can dig up shows a slimmer, sleek prow profile.  The bulky thickness of your prow design is not accurate in my opinion, and distracts from this otherwise BEAUTIFUL vessel.

Also, the cabin looks a bit too rectangular from the plan view, and should be closer to a perfect sphere, but ANYWAY...this is one of my favorite vehicles in the SW universe and you created a real gem here.  I only make these constructive criticisms because it's close to being a perfect design that I would purchase...many times over! 

Thanks for posting these beautiful photos, as well.

$ .02 
 

Edited October 22, 2023 by lowlead
added another feature I liked

[KevinMD]

Holy chit!

rebrickable link for anyone like me who immediately thought “I need to build this!”

[Evilkirk]

3 hours ago, lowlead said:

Great looking Scimitar!

You have accomplished so much here, where other MOCs fall short.  I'll try to avoid typing a giant TLDR post, but here's what I really like:
- You absolutely nailed the color scheme.  The dark/light grey treatment and patterns are spot-on.
- Near, but not 100% studless design.  Your choice to build out the wing roots in a 'studs sideways' orientation is a great feature.  I like a few studs here and there!
- Very effective use of those hinged light grey panels at the fuselage-to-wing area!
- A truly 'screen accurate' minifig interior, complete with the two level [somehwhat] spherical cabin section and the utility crawl space - with the Bloodfin speeder, no less!!
- The aft boarding hatch and engine exhaust area look great - very close to the ILM design.
- The double-jointed folding wings are the perfect shape, and the detail looks great - just enough, not overdone.  Love it!

Which brings me to a couple nitpicks.  Don't take this the wrong way, because I love this MOC....

The prow.  it's very THICC.  So much so, it's a feature I can't warm up to.  Of course, to make room for this amazing interior, you required more room.  But every bit of source material I can dig up shows a slimmer, sleek prow profile.  The bulky thickness of your prow design is not accurate in my opinion, and distracts from this otherwise BEAUTIFUL vessel.

Also, the cabin looks a bit too rectangular from the plan view, and should be closer to a perfect sphere, but ANYWAY...this is one of my favorite vehicles in the SW universe and you created a real gem here.  I only make these constructive criticisms because it's close to being a perfect design that I would purchase...many times over! 

Thanks for posting these beautiful photos, as well.

$ .02 
 

Wow thank you so much for taking the time to share your thoughts in so much detail - and I do welcome the nitpicks too!

Without typing a whole massively detailed essay; to make the inner sphere round and the prow slimmer, I'd have had to make the whole thing around 50% larger (and thus 50% heavier, needing more technic reinforcement etc etc) in all directions to keep the proportions correct and I didn't want it to become a +1m long monster build :D ..so a "box inside a ball" rear hull and a deeper front end were the way to go.

I thoroughly enjoyed kitting out the interior and I used my old "Incredible Cross Sections" book for some of the interior engine details, although I had to use a bit of artistic license because, well, it's Lego haha. Thanks again for your valuable insights, I really do appreciate it!

 

3 hours ago, KevinMD said:

Holy chit!

rebrickable link for anyone like me who immediately thought “I need to build this!”

Doh, why didn't I think of that? Thank you!!

[Darkage_lego]

Cool  :)

[TeddytheSpoon]

Nothing I love more than a great episode I MOC, and this is a GREAT episode I MOC! Super impressed with the level of detail on the inside. Easy to forget just how big this ship is sometimes!

[Feuer Zug]

This is SOO much better than any Sith Infitrator out there. Insane attention to details.

[Evilkirk]

12 hours ago, Darkage_lego said:

Cool  :)

 

4 hours ago, TeddytheSpoon said:

Nothing I love more than a great episode I MOC, and this is a GREAT episode I MOC! Super impressed with the level of detail on the inside. Easy to forget just how big this ship is sometimes!

 

2 hours ago, Feuer Zug said:

This is SOO much better than any Sith Infitrator out there. Insane attention to details.

Thank you very much guys! 

[Calanon]

Wow! This is fantastic, so many great details here. Love the seats and the lift.

In the corridor to the cargo hold etc, is there actually enough space for a mini to stand?

[Third Navigator]

Impressive!

All details to play with are here in this small ship, and maybe it is dream of everyone who once played with space ship.

Good job....really..

[Evilkirk]

9 hours ago, Calanon said:

Wow! This is fantastic, so many great details here. Love the seats and the lift.

In the corridor to the cargo hold etc, is there actually enough space for a mini to stand?

Thanks! Sadly the lift had to be a cosmetic 'repulsor lift'... I spent a couple of evenings trying different working lifts, but the smallest I could get them to be was a 4 x 5 floor area, which was still just too big! 

Well-spotted on the corridor thing - this was something I worried about early in the design, "How am I going to make that corridor high enough all the way to the front, without making the exterior too deep" ...until I noticed on the floor plans that the corridor was labelled as a "Maintenance CRAWLSPACE", which generally made things a lot easier for me 

4 hours ago, Third Navigator said:

Impressive!

All details to play with are here in this small ship, and maybe it is dream of everyone who once played with space ship.

Good job....really..

Thank you - it's been thoroughly "play-tested" all around my house 

[Csaba]

Looks really nice. I might consider this for my next MOC after I've finished building the Zeta shuttle.

[Iperial_Fleet_Commander]

Incredible! 

Those opening doors are fantastic tbh, a standout in an already great build.

[Evilkirk]

On 10/24/2023 at 1:50 PM, Csaba said:

Looks really nice. I might consider this for my next MOC after I've finished building the Zeta shuttle.

Thank you!! :)

13 hours ago, Iperial_Fleet_Commander said:

Incredible! 

Those opening doors are fantastic tbh, a standout in an already great build.

Thanks!  Those doors were a massive pain in my thermal exhaust port!!  It took a while to figure out how to tilt them forwards to try and keep some "roundness" to the overall shape, but I think I got there in the end.  

[Shiva]

Very nice build!

Your build, made me think of the Kom'rk-class Mark 3, seen in Mandalorian.

[Evilkirk]

On 10/28/2023 at 1:49 AM, Shiva said:

Very nice build!

Your build, made me think of the Kom'rk-class Mark 3, seen in Mandalorian.

Thanks! ...that's actually on my list of possible-MOCs-to-do, but I'm still deciding... although if I do it, it will be a Mark 1 or 2 :)

[Shiva]

Not a mini-fig scale Mark 3?

Wait, it ain't a minifig scale Mark 1 or 2 you mean, right?

[JintaiZ]

This looks amazing, love all the interior details!

[Evilkirk]

9 hours ago, Shiva said:

Not a mini-fig scale Mark 3?

Wait, it ain't a minifig scale Mark 1 or 2 you mean, right?

Yep I mean Mark 1 or 2, the bigger ones! I'm just not sure about how to connect those huge wing sections to the main body, without them bending and flopping when moving up and down, as they're only connected by a relatively narrow "hinge" ...Once that problem is solved, the rest of it should be easy enough.  I tend to take a looong time thinking about how to solve those kind of problems, before I even pick up any bricks, so IF I do build one, it won't be for a some time yet :) 

5 hours ago, JintaiZ said:

This looks amazing, love all the interior details!

Thank you very much! Decorating the interiors/engines is always the most fun part for me :)

[Shiva]

The small turntable https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=99009c01#T=S&O={"iconly":0} too small for those big builds.

The bigger turntable https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=18939c01#T=S&C=86&O={"color":86,"iconly":0} still too small. But maybe useful

Maybe something, somehow, with the smaller curved gear rack https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=78442#T=S&O={"iconly":0} ?

Or the bigger one https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=24121&in=S ?

[mcphatty]

Absolutely awesome, the more I stare at your photos the more I love it! First things first, the ship looks perfect, beautifully smooth with the odd stud or bar for texture and some really clever use of pieces like those Technic panels either side of the cockpit. Great angles too and I really like how you've built the light/dark grey patterns. It's all excellent. On top of all that the interior is amazing, the contrast between the hidden mechanical detail and clean open areas is bloody satisfying to look at and I really want to know how you sqeezed all that in and gave the ship enough strength sit so comfortably on that stand. I guess I'll have to buy the instructions!

Superb work, it's a real triump! Any chance of seeing some photos of it next to your excellent Rogue Shadow?

[Evilkirk]

On 10/30/2023 at 9:08 PM, Shiva said:

The small turntable https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=99009c01#T=S&O={"iconly":0} too small for those big builds.

The bigger turntable https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=18939c01#T=S&C=86&O={"color":86,"iconly":0} still too small. But maybe useful

Maybe something, somehow, with the smaller curved gear rack https://www.bricklink.com/v2/catalog/catalogitem.page?P=78442#T=S&O={"iconly":0} ?

Or the bigger one https://www.bricklink.com/catalogItemIn.asp?P=24121&in=S ?

Yes thanks, I used one of those large turntables for the big wing on my previous Rogue Shadow MOC.  I'll have to buy some of the gear racks and experiment... :)

 

18 hours ago, mcphatty said:

Absolutely awesome, the more I stare at your photos the more I love it! First things first, the ship looks perfect, beautifully smooth with the odd stud or bar for texture and some really clever use of pieces like those Technic panels either side of the cockpit. Great angles too and I really like how you've built the light/dark grey patterns. It's all excellent. On top of all that the interior is amazing, the contrast between the hidden mechanical detail and clean open areas is bloody satisfying to look at and I really want to know how you sqeezed all that in and gave the ship enough strength sit so comfortably on that stand. I guess I'll have to buy the instructions!

Superb work, it's a real triump! Any chance of seeing some photos of it next to your excellent Rogue Shadow?

Thanks very much dude, I'm really honoured!  Rogue Shadow - scrapped for parts for this ship lol!  Still deciding what to make next before I wreck the Scimitar too... minifig scale versions of either the Lambda class shuttle, or that massive Pirate Corsair from the Mandalorian hmmmmmmm

[Shiva]

 

?

Wow!

Mark 1 and 2's they are so big, that whatever used, has to be reinforced, some way. + good luck!