Buthcers paper, 20lb. bond paper, end rolls from print shops, card board anything you can draw on and cut out easily. Templates are nothing fancy, just something you can cut out and trace around. Kit plans and builders plans differ a little. Kit plans show where the parts go, builders plans show the same but they have every part of the plane shown full size and in profile. Most of us get a copy of the plans we buy then have a copy made. The copy gets cut up and built on and the originals get stored for later use if you want another of the same plane. Depending on how you build from builders plans you can use the cut out templates over aqnd over. Sometimes I like to just glue the template onto the wood and cut and sand right to that. If I just trace the parts then I save all the cut out templates. Keeping the old kits alive is easy this way. Plans and templates can be shared and traded. When I moved here four years ago I had to toss out all my templates and a lot of plans, another regret because I had a lot of them. I build most the time from plans these days.