I've done the chest piece and the shoulder pads today, but i decided to space out a little bit the modelling session because i was staying too much sat at my pc / desk and it would have a bad effect on my health (mostly dehydratation, forgetting completely to drink) but the "whole" process may take around a month or two , "if" i work on it 16 hour a day and do only that xD and we go with a more simple approach / basic rendering of models, and probably much more if we want something truely cinematic, depending of the level of rendering and detail , diversity and handcrafted details you want in the final scene. I could copy paste one type of soldier, and animate them, but it would look dull / boring and lazy, even if the animation is well made, having multiple times the same armor design or same models across the whole scene would look... well... not very impressive to say the least. ( And i'd like to make at least mid to high fidelity models for the animation ^^ )
But my health plays with me sometimes so i have to go to the doctor and take painkillers some days, it happens that i can't be working when i get migrainous / headaches and bowel lazyness, it fucks up one day from time to time because of my spina bifida and unfortunately i can't control that aspect.
RE: Process : Modelling shoulder armor parts