It's been some time since I posted in this thread.
Basically I ended up scrapping everything except the main chest armor, which I trimmed as close to ESB shape as I could. (I kept the gloves, cape, and robe for a future project.)
Ordered some vacuformed ESB shoulder bells from Jeffrey Kindall here on the RPF,
and put together a temp lifesize bust display until I can afford to buy accurate soft parts from fenixprops.