Hi guys. They show you wearing studded air on one side on loading screen and the other side has metal but with a shoulder too arm part to it. I've tried crafting to make my arms look more armored but painting it only changes the color and the part with pocket brawling etc doesn't seem to change the look of it. This goes for all metal parts. With leather I know if you added studded it looks studded at least.

There are higher tiers of each type of armor.

Combat armor maybe instead of metal armor?

Combat armor at least comes in regular and heavy variants, with heavy having much more plating visible. haven't seen mark 2 metal armor yet but there is a precedent for it in fallout.

I found synth amour that has a lower and upper arm section to it looks like a kind of arm brace, ironically less defence than the leather piece that only has forearm.

This seems to be the pattern with most Synth equipment. Remember- Institution weapons deal significantly less damage than their laser counterparts.

Ah so your saying the add ons that are at the bottom of the list might change what the armor looks like. That's Cool then

Yeah i noticed this but it didn't come with any sort of great advantage over any other stat so say lower damage but faster fire rate or better reload speed!!

As beng said, there are multiple tiers for each armor. Normal, sturdy and heavy, each tier adds additional parts to the armor.

No. All armor types follow the same scheme: Standard -> Sturdy -> Heavy. Higher tiers offer more protection, and also visually cover more of your character. The stuff you're seeing on the loading screens is Heavy Metal Armor. It will take a while, but eventually you should start seeing higher tier armor in loot.

That's for the explination just found hardened raider chest piece that looks so much different to normal raider chest piece. At least I have a better understanding how that works now