Yeah, the main goal I am after in the rigging is that the chest armor doesn't move when the arms do. I only want it to follow the chest twist or side to side movement, so perhaps I will smart prop it. I had a piece of the chest armor rigged so that it was fairly stiff (unchecked bend, tweaked the falloff zones), but like a fool I deleted it because I wanted to do the entire armor instead.

I got to thinking about it last night as I was going to sleep, and I may just export out in pieces: the underarmor with the shoulder padding, gauntlets, belt and thigh armor as one piece,the chest, the hood, the helmet, the gloves and finally the boots. That would be eight pieces total. Doable, but it will take a bit more time. I am up for it.

Then you would have a range of options available (like that scene where she is at the campsite with her helmet and gloves off, pouring sand out of her boot).

As far as limitations in ROM, I guess when the user sees the chest piece poke through Miki, he/she knows they bent her too far...

If I had a nickle for ever time a woman told me to get lost, I could buy Manhattan.