Not much of advice there! An ARF is not a warbird. You could also to hang it up in your garage after you build it, that''ll keep safe for a long time. But what's the use ??
Acetrella,
You have to be able to enjoy the building as much as the flying and minimise the risks knowing that the chance to loose your " new baby" is always there. Reduce risks with more maintenance, preflight inspections, redundancy in Rx power and servos, etc. As you get more experience you will improve on the critical aspects of flying ( take off, landing) and take extra steps.
If you taking tips from Sport flyers or 3D-acro guys, be carefull as these pilots not always know how to fly the wing. Is not about over-power, is about knowing when the wing stops flying, the effect of torque at low airspeed, adverse yaw, etc.
To get information about these topics, get a real flight manual like Jeppesen or similar, don't just relay on second hand info that can confuse you even more.
Warbirds are a LOT of fun and challenging and I know of some that'd been flying after more than 300 flights.

There is a lot to learn but that makes it more interesting,
JG
http://mywebpage.netscape.com/warbirdscale/