[Brainfart] The Hrud

Afternoon all,

I've been day dreaming a bit today about starting to get some more Xeno armies made up and on the table, as opposed to humans, traitors and "the usual suspects". I've been reading a bit about minor Xeno races, especially after attempting to start my venture into the world of Demiurg.

Most of my ideas start off by looking at Warhammer Fantasy or Warmachine models and try and work out how I can use them in 40k to represent another army. So the next idea in my series would be to give the Hrud a go...

Hrud image from Xenology - http://wh40k.lexicanum.com/wiki/Hrud

So, the image might be a bit contradictory, but the major points of their fluff and background information smells a lot like the Skaven. "Warp-Plasma" technology, poisons, tails, robes covering rat-like features and most importantly, described as "Infesting" planets.

Reading the Lexicanum Wiki, I started imagining these guys being hidden deep underground on Manutia, waiting and raiding the Planetary forces to have their wicked ways with.

What exactly could I "count-as" a Hrud army with, that I don't already own? The two main contenders for me are Tau and Nurgle Daemons.

Tau for their use of Plasma technology, lots of things could be represented by Warpfire, Rat Ogres with Jetpacks or something could be used as Battlesuits. I'm seeing a very Steam-Punk army going in my head, it's just whether I could translate that to miniatures on the tabletop. Also, an issue with using the Tau would be the use of Vehicles. One option was to use the Doomwheel on a Skimmer base, kind of like a flying saucer and use this as the "Chassis" for all vehicles to be based from.

Nurgle Daemons based on a lot of descriptions from background info - use of Poisons, plague carrying, infestations, aging nearby humans and whatnot. The idea would be to base the army on Plague Monk plastic models as the Plaguebearers, Rat Ogres as beasts of Nurgle, Rat Packs as Nurglings and so on. I could then expand from just Nurgle, into the Warpfire realms of Tzeentch, with Warpfire Flamers like Plague Censers,  something to count as Horrors. Then maybe for a Combat kick, Stormvermin as Bloodletters. To top it all off, they all Deepstrike onto the battlefield - justification? - they're tunnelling in from Emergence holes.

Overall, I want a decent looking army, without spending 10 hours converting 1 model, so plastic Skaven stuff is FTW here. So far, the Nurgle Daemon route is looking the best option for me, since it'll also mean I can spend £18 on minis, as opposed to another Codex.

What do you guys think? Any ideas on the subject or whether there would be any issues with my ideas?

SB