Tau
Advanced Hunter Cadre

The Tau seem like the perfect Warhammer 40K army for me. They are high tech, they got guns (lots of guns), and they are not covered in skulls. But while some of the designs are very nice (fire warriors, gun drones), others are less so (battle suits). This opens the field for customization!

The theme of this miniature army will be technology. I want to include more drone types (mapped over existing units, rules-wise), and make my own suit designs. For the time being, though, these exist only in my imagination...

Elite

A possible look for my army commander, inspired by a samurai hat. Twin-linked fusion blasters and a shield generator, with a built-in drone controller (the drone-inspired "hat" -- who said you can't show hardwired equipment?). The two drones are shield drones. I figure that with three 4+ invulnerable saves, plus three Wounds, he'll be very hard to kill.

The Crisis Suits would be almost entirely redone. I'd keep the legs, and part of the arms and backpack jets, all of them heavily modified and streamlined. No image yet.

Troops

Two possible designs for a Tau infantry drone. The idea is to have an army that is more varied than the commercially available one. These would be used to replace fire warriors, since I think the existing Fast Attack drones are just fine for that role.

More possible designs for a Tau infantry drone. Since most official drone designs move by anti-gravity, I made a few variations with grav platforms instead of legs.

Yet more possible designs for a Tau infantry drone. These, with the sensor spines as "hair," would make excellent Kroot stand-ins (see below).

Heavy Support

Under the current rules, Kroots are not very valuable. They are over-priced for their abilities, and both the Hounds and the Krootoxs needlessly take up valuable army slots. However, I hear that this is going to be fixed in the upcoming Codex, so I started thinking ahead. This thing would be a Tau Krootox equivalent. Same rules: the automated gun assembly is fragile, so if it gets destroyed the expensive carrier drone is programmed to beat a hasty retreat (a request from the Water caste, alarmed at the rising cost of the Empire's armies).

I find that the current Broadside suit design is too wimpy for the provided stats. These are supposed to have a 2+ save, they should look the part. I’d rebuild most of the design from scratch, giving them extra armor on the torso and lower legs. The railguns would remain on the shoulders but might be turned flat like the Hammerhead tank (not sure yet), while the arms would receive extra missiles. The alternate model would have no head to speak of, just an armored cowl. (Sorry for the small size of the picture, this was just a doodle.)