Funny, but Troy is between Auburn and Enterprise, where I lived for 15 years. I don't know about hobby shops, but Enterprise has a good one. Morgan Fuels is located there too. The LHS is on the main street, just past the fountain. It is about 45 minutes from downtown Troy. I would guess that Troy has a LHS. Aviation is big in that area with Ft. Rucker just down the road. Montgomery is about an hour away. I don't know much about what is there.

You are getting a lot of advice on the Zero. Maybe some of those mini servos would work well with it. It isn't going to hurt to build the plane while digging into the equipment issues. There are some lightweight motor/battery options available. After seeing some of the tiny planes flying around, I don't see why you can't make something that flies well.

You know that Troy is a party town, right? I think the first place to check out is The Porch.....