It's my pleasure to help anyone and everyone on here. Thanks for the kind words.
As for planes, if you look at my hangar, you will see that I HATE FOAM! All of my planes other than my trainer (made off of the Telemaster) and the F-16 (made because I was bored at work lol) are made out of balsa covered in Monokote. My 50" Edge, 40" Extra, 40" Edge, 30" Bipe and my Telemaster are all made out of balsa covered in Monokote. Foam flexes too much and just looks cheap when you get up close to it. I like things that look real, and when you can see the foam beads, it's not real.
IMO, hobbylobby sells some nice balsa kits, but you have to put most of them together. Tower Hobbies sells my 50" Edge 540T made by Great Planes, but it's not a beginner plane. If you want a really good beginner plane, a high wing trainer, get ahold of Gaba and see if he is still selling his trainer cheap. Honestly I would offer a bill for it bind-N-fly, but I like building and setting up my own planes. Also if you were me, you would buy an ARF kit, then get all of your electronics and figure it out on your way. I love that part of the build lol.
The next question is, do you want nitro or electric? Electric is easier by far and cleaner. Nitro just sounds and smells great. This is up to you, and will help narrow down the results. Let me know and I can help point you in the right direction.
if you ever build i built my extra 330 3d foamie out of the cellafoam same stuff that you put on your house before vinyl siding 1/2" thick is what i used it is the orange plane in my album..i also agree with tony on the 50"+ wingspan my eagle 2 has a 51/2' wing and when i flew it it floated at low speeds and it is a nitro