[eisen]

well to answer the first question: i found that flipping the shoulder armor around where the hinge point of the stock figure (the part that attaches it to the main torso) ends up on the sides actually gave the figure a slightly wider range of lateral movement than my first attempt. then i did the same procedure-

i drilled a hole onto the front and back of the shoulder and shoulder armor,

stuck some paperclip wire (thickest i could find) there to keep it in position and allow for swinging the arm by functioning as a hinge,

then filled up the hole with 1-minute superglue+talcum powder epoxy

and proceeded to repeat the same on the other shoulder.

this method gets rid of the unsightly shoulder hinge of the stock figure that made for unrealistic frontal shoulder movement, while allowing for a fair degree of lateral movement

(i know pictures would be better but i don't have a spare lol). but you'll know what i mean once you start work on yours

as for the second question:

it's more of a cosmetic thing to make him look different from version one, and to really live up to the "coffee-can" look