Best Way To Construct Armor?

[Junitsua28]

I've been slowly progressing into making my halo armor chest piece and i have completely messed up the front part by trying different ways to make it stronger and better. so..i'm stuck with making a completely new one. So..with that said, what is the best method so far (without using fiberglass sheets) to make halo armor? i don't want to mess up again.
sorry for no pictures..i'm buying a video camera soon.