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I was wondering if it would be unfeasible for a Chaos Terminator to have wings. I recently purchased a lot of older models, and was planning on converting the Terminator with parts from an old-school Tyranid Gargoyle model to make him seem more... "Chaosy". However, I don't want to throw wings or anything on that wouldn't make sense. This model will be for resale on Ebay, but I don't want to turn off customers by making them say "Wow, this guy didn't know what he was doing. A winged Terminator? Dumbest idea ever". Truth is, I don't really know what I'm doing because I don't play CSM, but I do know that CSM is one of the most commonly converted armies (and the conversions of models are also widely accepted because it's chalked up to "crazy demon shiz").

So, what's the verdict CSM experts?

Also, am I in the right forum? I guess I'm asking a question about if it's possible in the fluff so it should fit, but I'm also kinda asking if it would make sense based on the equipment offered in the codex... or if it would even be something desirable to a CSM player.

It's perfectly fine fluff-wise as long as in-game you're not trying to say the model has Termie armour and a jump pack which doesn't sound like the case from your post. It can be tricky to do, but if done right it will look amazing. Really, you want the wings to go more or less straight up and back rather than curved, and protruding from the top panel or the groove between the armour/shoulderpads rather than from the vents on the back.

As for resale value - if you're looking to sell it before you've even made it, I wouldn't bother. You'd need to be an extremely good modeller *and* painter to be able to make this attractive to someone who hasn't thought up the idea themselves (and therefore knows how they want it). Basically if your painting is that good then you'll know from your previous sales already that you could pull it off.

I don't mean to rail on one of our own poor members(!), but in my opinion this is how it should NOT look, the wings don't look like they're in a natural position nor do they look like they're big enough to do anything useful:


Unfortunately I couldn't find any decent examples, and only one or two more examples *at all*, it seems very few people have actually tried this.

Yeah....no.

Terminators are generally portrayed as having mildly reduced agility and flexibility compared to power armor -equipped individuals and I just can't see a bulky, heavy terminator with wings without it seeming like a joke.

There would be plenty of other means of getting that 'Chaosy' look you've mentioned: maybe a bioweapon to replace an arm, some kind of 'organic outgrowth' over the armor, claws or bladed limbs sprouting about.

That's my opinion, anyway.

Tricky! I like the idea, but like Vaerros, I think the uberheavy armour makes it a bit difficult. One way I could imagine it to work might be to depict a sort of "ascension in progress" where the owner of the suit if one step away from becoming a Daemon Prince and already has the wings growing out of their body. However, he still needs to wear his armour, so the solution would be to "remove" the sections that would prevent the suit from being worn.
Make it look as if the CSM does not wear his entire Terminator armour but had to forego some back pieces to make room for the wings.

You could also go for a thinner sort of "Kerrigan-style" where the wings are not actually bat-wings but more like a fan of bone-blades. It'd take some work but converting those 'Nid wings into such a design might be possible (lots of cutting/filing).

Alternatively, make the wings look like a part of the armour and give the entire suit an organic appearance, with veins on the plating, an eye on the pauldron, and stuff?

Thanks for the replies everyone! I'm going to play around with it today and see what I can do based on what everybody says here. I really like the idea of the terminator "ascending", which I may be able to pull off perfectly by shaving down the back half of the armor/not putting the back half on at all and using the back part of the gargoyle's main body. Luckily I'll have lots to experiment with because I got a gallon bag of classic metal nids for $20, some of which are incomplete and I'm perfectly fine with stripping down/cutting up for extra bits (and I know I'll make my money back even if I do that. Completed figures I've found so far are 4 "Screamer Eater" Carnifex's, 2 original Hive Minds, and a couple of Original metal Warriors). If all goes well I'll take some pictures and post them in the painting/modeling forum and put a link up here for anyone who's interested in seeing how this turns out.

Thanks again everybody!

EDIT: Wow, I fell incredibly stupid now. Turns out this blister (it was opened previously so everything was kinda just floating around) actually contained two figures, neither of which were a Chaos Terminator. What I do have is a metal Possessed CSM Champion (which is supposed to have wings anyways) and an old metal Raptor (which already has a jump pack), so I can still play around with those two...