Just wanted to say thanks to SpaceCowboy and Terra1 for all the info. Stumbled across the pepakura Trooper Bucket after having some fun with a couple of Wintercroft Masks. Anyhow, I built one really fast knowing that I would screw things up, and started a second more slowly and with better materials using what I learn from mistakes on the first. Anyhow, ugly trooper #1 has a first layer of resin, and I'm doing detail work on the paper assembly phase of Trooper #2. I put the Pepakura viewer software on an old PC and being able to zoom in and see where the pieces go has really helped.
This has turned into hours and hours and hours of fun, which as cost me a total of about $10 so far. Much cheaper than convincing my wife I need to order a pre made armor set... For now, anyway. Thanks again, everyone!