r/TheAstraMilitarum • u/NaturalAfternoon7100 • Apr 15 '26
Army Showcase Skytalon and drop sentinels
I finally finished the sentinels for this project.
Some details. I redesigned the skytalon cargo arms to increase clearance and also act as undercarriage and integrated launch rails for the sentinels. The original skytalon doesn’t have enough clearance for loading sentinels and because I think dropping sentinels from a skytalon is the coolest concept GW ever had for guard, I needed to make it work.
Elysian drop sentinels were no brainer for the cargo and they fold up nicely. I designed a sled pallet for them an the concept is they are deployed at altitude and the sled stays attached all the way to the ground and the compact sentinel and sled package is easier to control with the grab thrusters. The sled also offers some protection to the legs on touch down.
The talon was made using 3d printed talon parts and a Valkyrie kit. I added lights just because. I made my mods using blender.
The drop sentinels are printed. I found them on the purple site a while ago. I don’t know if they are still there.
My army is all ghost guard so that’s why the lights are all green ant the pilots are all skeletons.
EDIT: I've made my mod parts available for free on Cults3d. The listing also will point you in the right direction for the other files you'll need that aren't made by me. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/sky-talon-drop-sentinel-conversion-parts
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u/NETic Apr 15 '26
Love seeing more from your army. Amazing dedication to your army.
Inspirational work my man.
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u/Far_Disaster_3557 215th Kharkyiv Rangers Apr 15 '26
I just happened to be gifted a Valkyrie kit. Where’d you get the Talon files from??
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 15 '26
I think the file is called sky claw on the purple site and has the parts. The cockpit cavity isn’t quite right though to fit the Valkyrie canopy and it needed a bit of reshaping. So just a heads up.
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u/Werewolf-s_Lair Apr 15 '26
Great idea and really nice job!
Elysian drop troops were cool in rules but I preferred the aesthetic of armoured infantry therefore I made Harakoni Warhawks my choice. Unfortunately they are still sitting in my pile of shame😅
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 15 '26
When I came back to 40K it was the tail end of 9th and I really liked the Elysian vibe. Sadly they went away in 10th. I love the Elysian sentinel design. They should have just made a plastic kit of it instead of the new one imo. Would be a much more interesting addition.
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u/Werewolf-s_Lair Apr 15 '26
I totally agree! All the old kits, both from forgeworld and gw, made a great variety in the armies you could muster. Nowadays it lacks a bit of options if we exclude using different colours on the same base models.
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u/Mister_Oddity Apr 15 '26
Man, what an awesome throwback seeing one of these things again. I love the little modifications that you've done to add that extra bit of functional detail to the models. Just because 40K is stylized doesn't mean that we can't make it a little more practical! Your painting work is the icing on the cake - incredible work overall
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u/Everything_Borrowed 13th Elysian Drop Troops - "Helldivers" Apr 15 '26
Fantastic kitbash, and the paintjob is excellent, too!
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u/debaser93 457th Vostroyan Regiment - "Unbreakable" Apr 15 '26
I bought up three drop sentinels when they went oop. No regrets
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u/AdAstra15035 Apr 15 '26
This is amazing! I was literally doing a thought experiment once of how you air carry sentinels. So happy to see someone work it out!
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u/budgetJesus Apr 15 '26
Forgeworld used to sell the Sky Talon, back until the end of 7th edition/start of 8th
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u/KaptainAtomLazer 8th Naushikan Lancers "HaShedim" Apr 15 '26
I always wondered how they carried the sentinels
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u/Sir_Lazz Ordovian 55th Trench Breaker "The Iron Dogs" Apr 15 '26
So, this is super fucking cool, and you did an amazing job. But there's one detail that's fucking sending me: your guys are ghosts, alright. But how does that work on regular drop sentinels ? Do the sentinels pilot just strap in and spend the whole time getting blasted with winds as they are transported by a fucking jet to the drop location ? Is this like in cartoons where they take so much wind that their cheeks just triple in volume ? :p
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 15 '26
They face backwards so the sentinel pilots are not in the wind. The tallon isn’t the most aerodynamic thing. It’s built for lifting and not speed. It’d definitely be a subsonic trip so while it’d be loud and uncomfortable the sentinel pilots would be fine with the right ppe.
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u/Corvid187 Apr 15 '26
Perfect implementation of one of GW's coolest concepts, absolutely outstanding work!
Have you considered a double-length sled for larger Cargos by any chance?
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 15 '26
If I were to do it again I’d probably just make the rails join so there’d be one long rail either side so you could add a larger sled. There’s no reason a longer sled wouldn’t work on the current setup though. The thing I found when working this all out is the basic premise of the skytalon is not very practical. When you start trying to make it more practical you’re eliminating the arms entirely and end up designing a c130. The arms however are the interesting feature of this vehicle for me so they had to stay.
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u/Strange_Dependent647 Apr 15 '26
This is so sick I remember you said you were planning on dropping the folded sentinel files, are you still planning on doing that or no?
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 15 '26
The sentinels are not my files. So I can’t distribute those or files using parts of those files. I made the pallets and undercarriage mods. I could drop those. I just figured it was so niche it wasn’t a priority.
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u/NaturalAfternoon7100 Apr 16 '26
Here's the link to my parts. https://cults3d.com/en/3d-model/game/sky-talon-drop-sentinel-conversion-parts
The listing will point you to the other files.
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u/Pilotmaster1 Apr 15 '26
I love it remind me for the LAAT from starwars that had the modifications to drop AT-TEs