First, if you take the dihedral out, the plane will roll opposite to the rudder. Low wing planes need dihedral or sweep back to counter the low location on the fuselage.

Second, chop off 1 rib. It will roll better & faster and you probably won't notice it on landings.

Third, the tail, both vertical & horizontal is small. I would and have widened the rudder to 4 inches and the elevator to 3 inches.

Fourth, get a DuBro Super Strength landing gear from Tower. They are fiberglass reinforced nylon and will not break. You can literally flatten them out on a bench, release and they snap back to their original shape. I use then on lots of planes.

4a. I haven't done this on a 40, but have on 2 60 sizes. install ply half ribs, add mounting blocks and put the gear in the wings. You could nail the power on takeoff (OS .91FX & Magnum .91XLS with Ultrathrust muffler) and it would track straight like it was on rails.

It is an easy kit to modify/bash into anything from a semi-scale plane on. I did my two 60s into Kawasaki Ki-61 Tonys.