I use lots of glossy and semigloss (photo) paper. They represent the textures of rockets a lot better than regular paper.
Glossy photo paper is glueable, you just need to roughen up the glue side with sandpaper. Just a little, not too much. Also, I glue my photo paper with CA (super glue), which is quick, and also can glue your fingers together if not carefully used, but it also holds glosy paper up well. Photo paper should not be folded sharply. it just is too thick. In such a case, it is much better to cut the parts and glue the backside to a V-shaped glue strip and re-attach the parts. You can 'round' them afterwards with an embossing tool. (small ball on a stick)
Thick paper is hard to fold nicely. It always creases. Best way is to use a humid cotton swab and stoke the back and then bend it. No creases. This needs some practice.
People like David Hanners (and me) like to use lots of different paper types in one build, especially when scratch building, it is essential to get a nice array of textures in a model, I think. This also needs lots of practice and knowledge of paper, and some intuitive feeling on how paper reacts to rolling, bending, folding.
Thickness of paper is VERY important. 80 gram usually is too thin and not at all sturdy, it buckles and is not able to carry a lot of weight. 160 or 180 gram is best for model building, sometimes a little thicker is required. 200 gram, 220 gram, maybe. It often is mentioned on model sheets on which thickness it needs to be printed. If you use thicker paper than mentioned, things will not fit. Trust me on that one. (experience.) For golden or silvery insulation, I just use chocolate wrappers in that colour. I also collected all sorts of coloured and metallic paper for that purpose. I have quite a cabinet full of paper for scratch building. Glueing layers of paper together to obtain a certain thickness is not convenient, it will always buckle and look messy.
As far as the Shuttle stack goes, I can recommend to take a look at
my build or at
David Hanners' stack. The shuttle is matte, thats true. But the boosters really are (semi)gloss. The insulation bands around them are matte. I rather use semigloss because gloss it too shiny and a little unrealistic. The ET is matte and in reality it has a very rough surface. The foam is thick and irregular in shape. I just used brown paper which I sanded to make it fuzzy and more matte. It gives the right feel.
And that is where I aim at. Not realism in the sense of every tile needs to be correct, every colour needs to be 100% spot on, I go for atmosphere. The model needs to
feel right. At 1/100 0r 1/96, the model is virtually 100 times further away from you than you have it standing in front of you. That means the feeling needs to be good, not the amount of rivets.
Hey, Craft, you know what is important? Just build stuff. Planes, rockets, cars, ships, birds, whatever. Build. Build, build, build. Ask questions when you really encounter an obstacle. But build and learn while building. Sometimes things will sove itseld when you look at them and suddenly you see how to do somethint or how to fit something. Experience is everything. We can tell you all sorts of stuff, but you have to do it. YOU make the models. You need to get the hang of it. Every start is hard, every first model won't look the way you would like it to be. It is all in your hands. And while doing it, it will improve.
Do not immediately expect museum quality models. Start with smaller stuff, easier stuff to get more into the swing of things.
We're here to help and to form some kind of global community here. But you also need to just
do the stuff to get the hang of it.