jester_s1

I'm going to try and discourage you from two parts of your plan. First, don't paint the airplane. Normally you don't think of it this way, but paint adds significant weight. You already are flying a plane that is underpowered and not terribly maneuverable, and adding paint will just make it that much worse. Since you've figured out this won't be the plane you are going to show off and be proud of for the long haul, just fly it as it is so you have the best chance of flying it successfully. Even though it's not the best choice for a beginner plane, it is a functional aircraft as it sits and it can give you some good flying experience.
Second, attitude is vital to being successful at flying. If you take off the plane expecting it to crash, 99% of the time it will. It will do it because you will be careless and will make it crash. If you are going to fly this plane at all, fly it with the attitude that you are going to make successful flights and learn some skills from it. Make every effort to make smooth turns that don't gain or lose altitude and to maintain a feeling of control during the whole flight. If you get disappointed because of a mechanical issue or a piloting error caused by inexperience, that's ok. The plane will have accomplished its purpose of teaching you what not to do and hopefully will be repairable. But do genuinely try to fly the plane well and bring it home in one piece.

To illustrate my point, I'll tell you about a Cub that's in my hangar/garage right now. We had this new member at the club who was one of these hyper, short attention span kinda guys. He flew on the club trainer for about a month and then showed up with a 25% Yak 54. He hadn't even soloed on the trainer yet and thought he could fly a Yak. The instructors took the Yak up for him so he could see it fly, then explained that he really should get something intermediate to build his skills on. So he bought a .40 size Hangar 9 Cub. He tried to fly the Cub the way one would fly the Yak, with predictably dismal results. He couldn't be bothered to learn how to do a takeoff right or how to coordinate his turns or set up his landing gear right or manage the wind with his rudder or any other of the 20 different flying skills you need to really enjoy a Cub. He also couldn't be bothered to learn how to tune an engine so he wouldn't get deadsticks. So he judged the Cub as a junker plane and started to treat it as such, taking risks and attempting maneuvers he had no business doing with any plane. Of course his attitude became a self-fulfilling prophecy. He got out there doing spins one day when I was at the field and nosed it in. He had such a negative attitude toward the Cub that he gave me the whole thing, engine, servos and all. I valued it and gave it some love and took the time to learn how to fly it well and now it's one of my favorite planes. This first foray into RC for you might not become one of your treasured planes, but it can be a good experience for you if you will take a positive attitude and use it to learn with. Learn what the plane can and can't do, and learn what it takes to fly it well. Then when you move on to more capable planes you'll actually be pleasantly surprised at how good you've become at flying, and the hobby will take on a whole new level of fun for you.