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Is there a lore reason for the chaos space marines to have these trims on their armours?
They sometimes have teeth and horns grow/morph out of the armours, such as those on gal vorbacks, so does that mean the trims are also growing from the armours?

It just suddenly struck me.

They tend to be brass in most of the artwork. I think this is to aid in showing that they are more ancient than loyal marines as most date back to the Heresy... Also, It looks very archaic and fits the baroque look of chaos, and it tends to contrast nicely with chaos colours.. Black, dark blue, blood red etc.

no the trims aren't growing on their armor. the metallic trim you also see on loyalist Marines. and the reason why are the rules of herakldry. there are ancient rules regarding it, of which many space marine chapters and elgions both follow. and thus many marine groups both traitor and legion will have a colour and then a metal trim. more rarely you will see a metal with a coloured trim such as the Imperial Fists (via Herealdric rules yellow = gold, and white = silver.

this BTW means that if you where making a custom marine chapter yellow with silver trim would proably be.. less ideal. it's not wrong but it would mean your marines colour scheme breaches tradtional rules of heraldry, not a bad thing though, not all chapters do.

Aren't IF yellow with black trim?

 queen_annes_revenge wrote:
Aren't IF yellow with black trim?

Pre-Heresy, seems to be the case.

Post-Heresy, the Codex sets black trim for 5th Companies.

It also has to do with the Chaos gods themselves.
Followers of Khorne are often adorned with Brass because it harkens back to a more primal era of War
Slaanesh worshipers will often have silver trim as a symbol of excess, with silver being tied to such concepts as greed (although gold works for this too), but also polished silver works well as a mirror, all the better for those narcissistic Emperors Children to see themselves.
Nurgle is rusted metal, all the better to see decay
Which leave Tzeentch to have gold, which is tied to old Alchemy, which fits the Sorcerers of the Tsons who dabble in old lore, ancient texts and rituals, mixed with corrupted science.

So while the "lore" is just that they have older marks of Armour, having various metal trims is just a visual designe element to set apart the Traitors from Loyalist, while at the same time say something about the Chaos alignment of the Marine

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I'd say arrogance.

These are traitors, they have fallen away from Imperial dogma to pursue selfish desires. There's a need for ostentatious displays of grandeur that can take many forms - skull trophies, ornate reliefs carved into armor, proclamations of their new faith, etc. All of it serves as a form of propaganda, reinforcing morale within their ranks while exclaiming superiority to their foes.

Assuming Gold and Silver are still considered valuable in 40k, it would make sense for them to deck out their troops in garish displays and flaunt what they are able to take from their opponents.

 Galef wrote:
It also has to do with the Chaos gods themselves.
Followers of Khorne are often adorned with Brass because it harkens back to a more primal era of War
Slaanesh worshipers will often have silver trim as a symbol of excess, with silver being tied to such concepts as greed (although gold works for this too), but also polished silver works well as a mirror, all the better for those narcissistic Emperors Children to see themselves.
Nurgle is rusted metal, all the better to see decay
Which leave Tzeentch to have gold, which is tied to old Alchemy, which fits the Sorcerers of the Tsons who dabble in old lore, ancient texts and rituals, mixed with corrupted science.

So while the "lore" is just that they have older marks of Armour, having various metal trims is just a visual designe element to set apart the Traitors from Loyalist, while at the same time say something about the Chaos alignment of the Marine

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This is a good explanation. I would add that that the Black Legion do it to directly mock the supposed austerity of loyalist Space Marines, the Word Bearers and the Invocators do it so as to look more like high priests, the Alpha Legion do it possibly as a way to be mock their opponents while still remaining in the shadows (though their armor in general is quite colorful and ornate), and the Night Lords do it probably to be brash, to show that they are unashamed in their actions and have rejected the conservative look of the Imperium, and to advertise to their victims that the pain is coming and there is nothing that one can do about it. The Iron Warriors do it just as part of their overall construction/hard hat look. Now there are a number of warbands that don't have the shiny trim, such as the Apocalypse Company/Bleak Brotherhood who have mostly black trim that is the same color as much of their armor, the Knights of Blood (their trim is the same shade of red as much of their armor), the Death Shadows who are pretty much all black, the Cleaved whose armor is almost completely the color of dirty silver/iron, and the Brotherhood of Darkness who have red trim. Go here to see more: https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Pictorial_List_of_Traitor_Legions_%26_Renegade_Space_Marine_Warbands_(A-L)

Nailing your gold to your armour is a great way to communicate your wealth, while keeping an eye on your booty.

You'll note traditionally the mook marines wear mainly silver whereas champions and chosen tended to have more gold.