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are they purely chaos? Or are they just simply pre-heresy.

They are pre-heresy backpacks (go and look at the older armour versions on the FW website) that have become twisted and more chaos-y over time (just like the armour that they're wearing seems to be MK4 & 5 mostly but with the chaos styling pack)

I presume it’s purely stylistic on miniatures, to let them look more like Chaos Marines than regular ones, but fluff–wise it seems odd that Legions started turning against the Emperor and had the same production line backpacks as each other that differed from the official models.

I did hear a nice explanation elsewhere. Since they tend not to go in for regular maintenance on their backpacks, CSM tend to stack their power cores for longer use (the scale–like look in the middle of the pack). Accordingly, the backpacks run much hotter than regular backpacks, so the vents need to be further away.

i belive it is just due to warp exposure & under maintinece that their like this

If you look at the old Marks on the Forge World website, the backpacks are practically the same, just a bit 'cleaner'

They're just the standard backpacks for the old style armour, which have become a bit more Chaos-ornamented over time.

I think they were standard pre-heresy backpacks that got all mutated and "chaosy" after the persons fall.

Heh, Chaos backpack...I just envisioned a Targus backpack that whispers to you in a forbidden tongue or something.

Kodanshi wrote:I presume it’s purely stylistic on miniatures, to let them look more like Chaos Marines than regular ones, but fluff–wise it seems odd that Legions started turning against the Emperor and had the same production line backpacks as each other that differed from the official models.

I did hear a nice explanation elsewhere. Since they tend not to go in for regular maintenance on their backpacks, CSM tend to stack their power cores for longer use (the scale–like look in the middle of the pack). Accordingly, the backpacks run much hotter than regular backpacks, so the vents need to be further away.

I like this explanation.

The chaos backpacks have changed numerous times over the years, and it doesn't appear the GW does them for any other reason than to make them look cool. I think the current sculpted backpacks have a lot to do with the preheresy ones, not the other way around.