I do some light building from scrap. But, I would like a breakdown of recommended tools and consumables. I'm a novice, who would like to do some larger scale stuff. I am pretty set in 35 scale armor/soft skins. Thanks guys!

I keep a variety of sheet styrene as well as shapes, some brass & aluminum rod/tubing, Music wire. Don't discount plastic packaging from almost anything. You can even salvage pens for parts.

A good straight edge and knife or scalpel are the bare minimum.
A machinists protractor is handy for angles:
http://www.generaltools.com/square-head-steel-protractor

Northwest Shoreline Products like the "THE CHOPPER" and "THE DUPLICUTTER II" can help as well.
http://www.nwsl.com/NWSL_Online_Catalog.html

Feel free to message me on FB if you have more questions!

You may also want to consider the aluminium soda cans.

They are excellent materials for scratch building.

Will try to post some pics when I am home later.

Cheers!!

I have a few disposable baking pans.

Soda cans: This can be generalised into 'any packaging/container made of thin sheet metal'.
In the "good old days" toothpaste came in "tubes" of fairly soft metal.

Styrene sheets: These are used in the printing industry and for various other purposes and with some luck you can find someone who sells whole sheets (1 meter by 2 meters) of 0.5 mm and thicker. One sheet lasts more or less for ever ....
/ Robin

http://www.usplastic.com/catalog/item.aspx?itemid=22883
starts at .020 inches thick 40x72 inches, $7.14 per sheet.
Shipping will be expensive unless you can arrange to pick it up.
I think they are in Ohio .... Some Googling might find some vendor closer to your location

I used to work at a print shop, here. Never considered where the plastic plates came from.

Maybe you can ask them for some discarded "misprints" or maybe just buy some fresh ones ?

Many years ago I found a misprinted calendar under the layout of the model railroad club ( http://www.smj.org/wp/ ) and asked one of the other members what it was doing there.
The answer was: "Styrene sheet" ;-)

Another source of thicker styrene sheets are broken CD-cases (the little flat boxes around the compact discs). Front and back are nice and flat and the shaped inlay that holds the actual CD usually has a structured surface. Sometimes the corners and other internal shapes are usable as well.

/ Robin

They have a ton of brass misprints. The plastic creates less waste. But, as has been said there are a lot of places to scavenge it.

A quick list form top of my mind.
Materials:
* Evergreen styrene in any shape you need, from plain sheets to tubes, beams, etc. ( http://www.evergreenscalemodels.com/ )
* Aluminium and other metal sheets
* Wire of different gauges

Tools, apart from the ones you already have as a modeller:
*Scribber
*Minisaw
*Punch&Die
*Mini power drill (low revolutions)
*The above mentioned Chopper

Are there specific sizes/gauges that you find you use more?

Not really, it all depends on the project you are working in... However I have found very useful the evergreen set 9008, which has three sheets of different thickness