i honestly don't get the discussion on the portraits that pops up again and again. in JA2, as far as we can see it, we see the face, neck and a bit of the shoulders. If you look at the JA2 portraits you can roughly categorize it:
- Military --> Ivan, Igor, Len, Fidel
- Office --> Buns, Grunty, Stephen, Sidney
- Plain-clothed --> Lynx, Ice, Hitman, Red, Magic
- Work-related --> Dr. Q, Cliff, Trevor
And than there is a bunch i can't just see good enough to categorize. In-game it was just diffirent coloured pants, t-shirts and tank-tops.
So how we percieve the JA2 characters is mostly dialogue, flavour text and personal memory (like how well prepared they were and having the right gear up for a war zone).
For JA3 references are being made about mercenary movies. In each and every single one of those movies the mercenaries are under equipped for a warzone especially armor wise. Because if you put em all in full military gear you loose the personalities.
I think most of the portaits i've seen in JA3 can be categorized the same way as JA2. For me only one of them stands out negatively and that's Magic, looking like a 70's pimp or something.