I was planning on making some tests about breaking the symmetry of the model, maybe get a test version ready for SL.

I spent a few hours merging the two mirrored sides, removing double vertices, moving the “closure seam” on the side and  trimming the mending plate. I also increased the spacing of the secondary shield and added a couple more edges to the crotch part.

Everything was going well and then i decided to go back up my modifier stack to merge and simplify the D ring staples…

… bad idea, the second picture shows how the model started imploding because the two “layers” of modifiers do not play nice with each others.

I kinda knew this was going to happen, been modeling for a decade after all, but i was expcting it to be fixed.

All is not lost, it gives me a good idea of what I want to do and how to do it. I need to get some preliminary unwrapping done before, because I will not be able to do it cleanly (or quickly) once the belt is curved in place.

Details wise, still need to drill the holes into the locking posts so they look all right without a padlock on.

Electricity wise, I think the electrical box will simply ‘sit’ on the top of the secondary shield, after the locking post, I don’t need to worry about this now, adding it is fairly easy.

Here is an idea for it though. If the secondary shield is unlocked, the electrical box can be opened with a click, inside will be controls: on/off and a little selector to pick the frequency it accepts (for the remote). When the secondary shield is locked, it will not accept clicks to open it. Maybe have  an eject button inside to detach it?