i just went thru the same drama, and yea its drama alright. 1st, you have no choice but 2 use another modeling prg, theres no way around it. your options are 2 either actually make the armor, or create morph targets 4 the seperate pieces, and then as you said, skin them................ i just went thru the armor ordeal, and its actually not that hard at all..... we had a humungous "campaign" about armor in the character creators forum...... start there..........