RE: first warbird - third plane?
Unfortunately, there aren't too many kits available for a Zero. I am just finishing up a Marutaka Zero but I wouldn't recommend it for a first kit. I can, however, highly recommend the Great Planes P-51 kit. It is not difficult to build and is the nicest looking of all of the sport-scale P-51s out there. It is also a very nice flying and easy to land bird. No bad flight characteristics at all. If you should choose this kit, I would also recommend that you build it with fixed gear and forgo the complexity of fussing with retract gear. Learn to fly this one and save the retracts for a next, more scale warbird.