@Snader - thanks for the suggestions. Couple of things - 1) What do you mean by float? 2) are you suggesting making the belt rings 3 sided instead of four?
1 by float i mean having separate objects for them, like you did with the bolts on the shoulders 2 yeah, this wouldnt work too well with alpha planes because they'd be invisible from profile view. but since they're thin wire objects they dont need a lot of shape