/3/ - 3DCG

Whats the best way to combine these?
I was just mucking around wanted to make somre shoulderplates but iv kinda hit a wall, right now each plates around 400 faces with no subd, but thats including undersides. I was wondering the best way forward to simplify this mesh.

Simply combining leads to heaps of issues with underside verts in the middle of the mesh i dunno how to clear

i tried booleans but unions end result is pretty much the same

any suggestions?
is it actually better to keep them seperate for rigging? i was considering that, it would mean more work in weighting them but could look cooler in the end but they were gonna be leather, not plate, so i wasnt too worried about a bit of conforming on them.