There was a recent review of 60 size two strokes in one of the RC rags recently, and the Tower 60 actually came out way up there in their ratings, low idle, high top end, power to weight and power per dollar spent.

I's suggest something like the GP P-51 as a good flying plane, but hold off on the detailing. As has been discussed, the smaller warbirds can get way too heavy pretty quickly. You can play around with covering, cockpit, markings and stuff to get the feel for it, but save the retracts and weighty details for a larger one.

Here's a small Dynaflite P-51 that I played with just as I was talking about.
Dennis-