3D Sketch of New Tau XV8

Although the retention of the old XV8 Crisis Suits was a disappointment for many, it was beneficial in that the Forge World suits weren't made obsolete. I still have a significant amount of remnant parts from previous conversions. These leftover forge world parts and some various bits scrounged from space marine kits come together for this 3d sketch I did above.

The main design motivation was to make the Crisis Suits bulkier, heavier and more detailed.

I began by first using modified fusion blasters for the lower leg. The upper leg was given the armor casings from a space marine dreadnought power plant. You can get these on Warstore for a limited time. Once I had the legs right, the rest fell into place.

The left arm is slightly longer than I would like so it will be trimmed down. Its hand comes from a Grey Knight Terminator. I acquired a set of these from ebay for less than 2 dollars.

At this point I'm not sure what to do with the hard points on the jet pack. I may leave them blank. However, I have a riptide kit that I may raid for hard point parts.

I'm also considering making a heavy plasma/fusion hybrid weapon for the right arm. I want this unit to hold the center of a battleline, utilizing the supporting fire rule, markerlights and kroot to push the center of the board when needed. 

Edit:
Thius I'd an alternative set up using some Paulson Games parts. I prefer this version as the pose is more dynamic and the weapon is being aimed to fire.

The Paulson Games head is also a lot better than my conversion and extends the silhouette higher, making the crisis suit appear taller.

The left arm has also been shortened so that the model has less of a monkey-boy look. I believe my camera makes the legs look shorter than they are though. In reality the legs look more aapropriately proportioned.