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So I know the basic premise behind scratchbuilding, but I was curious what size of materials everyone used. I'm looking to make a bulk order to stock up for a few projects I have in mind and wondered what the common sizes were for this sort of thing (I'll be making tanks)

At this point I know I'll be ordering a good chunk of .9mm rod to use as rivets, and was thinking of getting both 1mm and 2mm sheets as basic construction material, as well as .5mm to use as a detailing material.

Any thoughts?

depends what you are building to be honest. buildings and vehicles, you will want thicker sheets 2mm 3mm for stability. if you are making smaller fiddly things like weapons you will want a selection of different sized tubes, hollow and solid, square rods, again hollow or solid and possibly oddball stuff like quarter round.

To start with I bought an Evergreen Scale Models sheet styrene assorted pack and a assorted rod pack. the sheet styrene assorted pack has 010" 020' and 040' thick sheets not sure about the rod pack though.

I think this is a good starting point, but I have bought a lot of other different rods, square pipes, pipes small strips etc since.

I also got the Evergreen sampler and have found all of the thicknesses useful (the .010" the least so, especially if you'll be building tanks, but it's still seen some use). .040"/1mm is reasonably stiff for small parts, but will flex over longer distances, so I think your plan of .5, 1, and 2mm sounds good. If you aren't building hollow superheavies, the shapes of the various structures will likely make them strong enough to survive the rigors of both production and play. You can always add a bit of internal bracing, if you're worried, or build a foamcore structure and skin it with styrene.

If you want to build up good, flexible starting material reserves, I'd consider expanding your selection of rod, tube, and shaped strips (angle, quarter round, etc.) before picking up other thicknesses of sheet. Great for detailing your tanks with brackets, fuel/electrical lines, pistons, etc. and invaluable when it comes to building weapons. Hex rod slices are great for bolt heads and nuts, as well. I don't like sliced rod rivets, personally (use use countersunk microbeads to make dome-headed rivets), but a little rod goes a long way, if you're using them. I think variety will serve you better than bulk, there.

Thanks for the responses! With regard to the rivets I was planing to use a video tutorial I saw on the sight where the rod is fed through a mechanical pencil and then has the head melted to form the top of the rivet. Once its cooled, you cut off the rivet and drill a hole to make the head just stick out from the surface.

And the general plan was to get my basic construction materials first and foremost, as the local hobby shop never has any of it in stock. Little detail material they have in abundance though so I'm not as worried