Hi everyone!
Just wanted to hop on here and share my latest passion project, my new Aquaman suit!
I’ve been wanting to do a water-proof Aquaman suit for a really long time. I made a suit a few years back, inspired by the film look using Aluminium chainmail scales stacked over a foam base.
I loved the result, but the suit was obviously quite heavy and, as it turns out, not at all wearable around salt-water environments. (We took it to a local beach and the glue reacted with the salt water and destroyed a lot of the suit)
So, flash forward to last year when I planned a trip to Bonaire for myself and my partner, and I decided to make a new Aquaman for the trip, with the hope (and wild dream) of maybe getting to bring the suit underwater for some authentic underwater photography!
With all that in mind I figured making a urethane rubber version of the suit would be more practical, similar to how the actual Aquaman movie costume was made. I got to work making the 3D model for the armor in my spare time, and even though the process was very time consuming, it was also really relaxing somehow.
All that being said, though, I saw time ticking by quite quickly. We were moving houses, and I could see the months going by without significant progress on Aquaman, with our trip planned and booked well in advance for July 2025.
It quickly became apparent that I would not actually make the date in July if I went along with my DCEU Aquaman suit replica. It was maybe just a bit too ambitious for the deadline. Budget wise, also, the project was a bit too much. Considering all the pieces I’d need to get (resin) printed, all the molds and molding material I’d need to source,… it was quickly becoming a bit too much.
That’s when I remembered that I’d made an Aqualad (Kaldur) armor 3D model a few years ago for a costuming workshop, and that they actually had already made the molds for it! So I thought it’d be wise to pivot from my original plan and make a new, original take on Aquaman using that armor as a base.
Plus, I kept the files in my archive and still had the exact scale pattern I’d used on it back when I first made the suit, so I could use it to create new pieces. I made some digibash mock-ups of what my suit could actually look like with ‘Aquaman’ colors and realised I actually might have a fun, unique project on my hands!
I still wanted to make arms for the suit, because I’m obviously not built like Aquaman and didn’t want to try my hand at a sleeveless design (even if I think this bodice system would actually look quite nice with the asymmetrical shoulder piece designs Arthur sometimes has!)
But making molds for the arm is certainly easier than making molds for an entire upper body of scale armor.
2 arms > 2 arms, a chest piece, abdomen section and entire back piece!
So, with that plan in mind, I kindly asked for the workshop I’d worked with to send over their molds (they were sitting in storage, so it wasn’t too big of a bother!) and I got to work modelling the arm. It took a shockingly short amount of time, since I basically just wrapped the scale texture over a buffed out arm model that I’d extruded outwards a bit. But I was really happy with the result, so I felt confident in my project becoming possible.
It’s now the beginning of May 2025. Trip is planned for July 12, 2025! It’ll be tight, but doable!
On that note, I’m ending this first post here! I’ll be posting in the next few days with further chapters on this project, leading up to the final reveal! Hope you like the project so far, and thanks for reading!
Just wanted to hop on here and share my latest passion project, my new Aquaman suit!
I’ve been wanting to do a water-proof Aquaman suit for a really long time. I made a suit a few years back, inspired by the film look using Aluminium chainmail scales stacked over a foam base.
I loved the result, but the suit was obviously quite heavy and, as it turns out, not at all wearable around salt-water environments. (We took it to a local beach and the glue reacted with the salt water and destroyed a lot of the suit)
So, flash forward to last year when I planned a trip to Bonaire for myself and my partner, and I decided to make a new Aquaman for the trip, with the hope (and wild dream) of maybe getting to bring the suit underwater for some authentic underwater photography!
With all that in mind I figured making a urethane rubber version of the suit would be more practical, similar to how the actual Aquaman movie costume was made. I got to work making the 3D model for the armor in my spare time, and even though the process was very time consuming, it was also really relaxing somehow.
All that being said, though, I saw time ticking by quite quickly. We were moving houses, and I could see the months going by without significant progress on Aquaman, with our trip planned and booked well in advance for July 2025.
It quickly became apparent that I would not actually make the date in July if I went along with my DCEU Aquaman suit replica. It was maybe just a bit too ambitious for the deadline. Budget wise, also, the project was a bit too much. Considering all the pieces I’d need to get (resin) printed, all the molds and molding material I’d need to source,… it was quickly becoming a bit too much.
That’s when I remembered that I’d made an Aqualad (Kaldur) armor 3D model a few years ago for a costuming workshop, and that they actually had already made the molds for it! So I thought it’d be wise to pivot from my original plan and make a new, original take on Aquaman using that armor as a base.
Plus, I kept the files in my archive and still had the exact scale pattern I’d used on it back when I first made the suit, so I could use it to create new pieces. I made some digibash mock-ups of what my suit could actually look like with ‘Aquaman’ colors and realised I actually might have a fun, unique project on my hands!
I still wanted to make arms for the suit, because I’m obviously not built like Aquaman and didn’t want to try my hand at a sleeveless design (even if I think this bodice system would actually look quite nice with the asymmetrical shoulder piece designs Arthur sometimes has!)
But making molds for the arm is certainly easier than making molds for an entire upper body of scale armor.
2 arms > 2 arms, a chest piece, abdomen section and entire back piece!
So, with that plan in mind, I kindly asked for the workshop I’d worked with to send over their molds (they were sitting in storage, so it wasn’t too big of a bother!) and I got to work modelling the arm. It took a shockingly short amount of time, since I basically just wrapped the scale texture over a buffed out arm model that I’d extruded outwards a bit. But I was really happy with the result, so I felt confident in my project becoming possible.
It’s now the beginning of May 2025. Trip is planned for July 12, 2025! It’ll be tight, but doable!
On that note, I’m ending this first post here! I’ll be posting in the next few days with further chapters on this project, leading up to the final reveal! Hope you like the project so far, and thanks for reading!
