/cgl/ - Cosplay & EGL

Couple questions: this is my first time making armor so I’m pretty trial and error on it so far. I’ve been using 10mm craft foam with a top layer of 2mm just for security. I bought a craft foam primer and gray plasti dip, will the primer be necessary before I do the plasti dip or am I being too paranoid? I helped a friend with armor last year and we absolutely hated the white plasti dip compared to the black because of bubbles and stickiness, will I need to worry about quality with the gray?

I’m also struggling on how to attach my armor to me. It’s pauldrons with a small middle chest piece, and I don’t have a chest plate to attach them to (the base is just a fabric mantle), and there’s no canon design of how they’re attached to the character. Should I try to attach them to the mantle via glue or tacking it into place (would prefer not), or have them connect to each other with elastic or chain? Will attach pic for reference just in case.