I'm with you on the looks of the model and moving the gear. This is just a great looking airplane. I'm a sport aerobatic and scale flyer I guess with some attempts at 3D thrown in (not with this airplane). Yes, nothing livens up an airplane like carefully moving the CG back. Notice that I said carefully. I had a Sukhoi one time that I thought I had set up the CG adequately and I did not. It was really a handful once up in the air cause it was tailheavy.
Slowing down the landing would be OK too.