From what I've seen and been told, You really won't save any money scratch building over buying a kit. It just gives you a little more ability to modify the plane and more pride in the outcome. As far as making templates, for some parts that may not be a bad idea int the event that you need to make repairs latter. Particularly, I think that having a pattern for the wing rib and fuse formers could save a lot of aggravation down the road. It's like an insurance policy, you hope you don't need it, but if you do need it, you'll be glad.