Attack on Titan · Full build tutorial
Reiner is two builds in one: the Survey Corps scout and the Marleyan Warrior. Both live or die on the same three things — a heavy, structured jacket, a harness that fits a broad silhouette, and a jaw-forward face. This section covers his makeup, the props worth building, printable hardware, and where each piece is worth buying rather than making.
Phase 01 · 2–4 hours
Lock the reference set and the buy-versus-build split before you spend anything on Reiner Braun.
Collect front, back, and three-quarter references for Reiner Braun from Attack on Titan, plus at least three finished community builds. Official art lies about seam lines; photos of real builds show you where the pattern actually breaks.
Decide piece by piece. Base garments you can't pattern quickly are usually cheaper to buy; the signature pieces are what make the cosplay read, so build or heavily modify those.
Chest, waist, hip, shoulder-to-shoulder, nape-to-waist, inseam, bicep, wrist, head circumference. Retailer sizing charts for cosplay sets run small — order by measurement, never by your usual size.
Wig (reference-matched wig), and any imported costume set. Overseas shipping and prescription lenses are the two things that most often make a build miss its convention date.
Phase 02 · 45–90 minutes on the day
Reiner is a structure-and-texture face, not a colour one. The work is in squaring the jaw, hardening the brow, and adding the tired, weather-beaten skin of a soldier who has not slept in four years.
Reiner reads slightly sun-worn. Use a base a half-shade warmer than your own, keep it matte, and skip anything dewy — shine reads soft, and Reiner should not read soft.
Contour straight down from the ear to a hard corner at the jaw angle, then stop. Do not curve it into the chin. Highlight the chin square itself so the jawline reads wide and flat from the front.
Block your natural arch with glue and redraw a thick, low, almost rectangular brow in a warm dark blonde. Extend the inner ends slightly toward each other for his permanent worried tension.
Blend a cool taupe into the crease and a soft grey-brown under the lower lash line, then add a faint second line under that for the hollow, exhausted look. No liner wing, no shimmer.
Stipple grey-brown cream on the temple, the jaw, and one cheek, then powder it back to dust. For the Warrior armband version keep the face cleaner and add a hint of stubble with a stipple sponge.
Wash, detangle, and pre-style the wig days before you wear it — reference-matched wig. Style on a head stand, not on your head, and set with hairspray in thin passes.
Phase 03 · 10–40 hours depending on how much you buy
Build or alter the fabric layers so the Reiner Braun silhouette reads correctly from ten feet away.
Cut a muslin or bedsheet mock-up of every fitted piece. Fixing a shoulder or a bodice on scrap costs an evening; fixing it in the real fabric costs the fabric.
Match the way the garment moves in Attack on Titan first — stiff twill and gabardine for uniforms and coats, four-way stretch for bodysuits, and lining satin for anything that has to slide over another layer. Order swatches before yardage when the colour is a signature.
Interface collars, cuffs, plackets, and any edge that carries hardware. Sew the largest panels first and press every seam as you go — pressing is what separates a homemade look from a finished one.
Put zippers and hooks where the reference has none: an invisible side zip, a hidden hook-and-eye at the collar, and snap-in modesty panels. Add pockets if the design lets you hide them.
Fit with the wig and shoes on so hems land right. Bar-tack armholes, crotch seams, and any point a prop strap will pull on.
Phase 04 · 15–60 hours
Reiner's prop list is standard Survey Corps issue scaled up to a larger frame, plus the Warrior armband for the Marley variant. The harness is the only piece that genuinely needs custom fitting.
Fit the harness on your own body rather than to a pattern — commercial sets are cut for slim frames and gap badly across a broad chest. Add elastic on the thigh loops so it stays tight when you move.
A simple band with the Marleyan star. Cut the star from heat-transfer vinyl for crisp edges; painted stars bleed unless you seal the weave first. Snaps let you swap variants at the con.
Standard issue. Weather the contact points harder than the rest — Reiner is shown with well-used gear in every arc.
Cut it long — on a taller build a standard-length cloak reads like a cape. Overdye bright green toward olive-grey so it holds up under convention lighting.
Survey Corps ODM files are shared across the whole cast, so anything modelled for Eren, Levi, or Mikasa fits Reiner. The only Reiner-specific print worth doing is the Armoured Titan plating for a display or partial-armour build.
Phase 05 · 6–20 hours
Finishing is where a Reiner Braun build stops looking like fabric and foam and starts looking like the character.
Airbrush or rattle-can in light passes from 20–30 cm, letting each coat flash off. Thick single coats crack at flex points and gloss up unevenly under con lighting.
Dark wash into recesses, dry-brush highlights onto raised edges, and keep metallics tonally consistent across every piece — mismatched golds are the most common tell in an otherwise clean build.
Weather to Reiner Braun's context in Attack on Titan: scuffs at contact points, dust at the hem, and metal wear only where a real hand or strap would rub. Restraint reads better on camera than heavy grime.
Matte or satin clear coat over paint, and a flexible sealer on anything that bends. Seal before adding weathering powders or the powders will migrate onto your costume.
Trim thread ends, steam the garment, touch up scuffs on the props, and check every seam and strap under bright light. Photograph it — the camera finds flaws your eye skips.
Phase 06 · 1–2 hours on the day
Getting the Reiner Braun build into a convention hall intact — and keeping it there.
Wear the complete build for an hour at home, including the wig, lenses, and props. Sit, climb stairs, and eat. Everything that fails will fail in that hour instead of on the con floor.
The kit that saves builds is small and boring.
Garment bag for fabric, foam-lined box or blanket wrap for props, wig on a head stand or stuffed with tissue inside a box. Never fold armor into a suitcase.
Air the costume before storing, spot-clean rather than machine washing anything with hardware, and log what broke so the next build fixes it.
Prep and references first, then the garments, then props, then paint and weathering, and makeup and wig styling last because they're redone every wear. This tutorial follows that order: plan and prep → makeup and wig → sewing and garment fabrication → props, armor, and 3d printing → paint, weathering, and finishing → wear day and repair kit.
INTERMEDIATE (2/4). The jacket and pants are approachable, but the harness rigging is what makes or breaks the look — every strap has to sit in the correct place or the silhouette reads as generic.
Buy the pieces that are cheap to mass-produce and hard to pattern — base garments, boots, wig, and lenses — and build the signature pieces yourself. The Reiner Braun dossier lists vetted retailer links for the buy side of that split.
Square the jaw with a straight contour that stops hard at the jaw angle, block and redraw a thick low brow in warm dark blonde, add taupe and grey-brown shadow under the eye for the exhausted look, keep everything matte, and finish with a light dust-toned grime pass.
The Survey Corps version is cheaper and far easier to source because the set is shared with the whole cast. The Warrior uniform is more distinctive and instantly recognisable, but it is rarely stocked and usually needs a commissioner, so budget more time and money for it.
Size up. Reiner is drawn broad, and cosplay sets are cut slim through the shoulders and chest, so most buyers need at least one size larger than the chart suggests. Compare your chest and shoulder measurements against the listing chart rather than trusting S/M/L labels.
Yes. ODM gear files are shared across the Attack on Titan cast, so blade grips, buckles, anchor hooks, and gear box plates all fit Reiner. Print load-bearing buckles in PETG. Armoured Titan plate sets exist separately for partial-armour builds.
Major cosplay retailers stock the Survey Corps uniform, and DexKosu aggregates the live listings per retailer on this page with community reviews flagging fit and fabric issues. Buy the harness or have it made rather than relying on the one included in a set.
