Jess's bottom line comment above (post #20) is dead on. The difference is not THAT big a deal. I prefer taildraggers too and have long felt that, on grass especially, they are less troublesome than nosewheels.
Tho at least part of this is due to the fact that many models have nosewheels that are poorly designed and poorly made. Model designers do not seem to have wigged on to the reason why, for example, bicycles and motorcycles have their steering axis angled forward and not just straight up and down. So do tri-geared full size Cessnas and others. It's done that way so the line of the steering axis intersects the ground at a point ahead of the point where the wheel contacts the ground. With the rolling drag acting thru a point behind that intersection point, the wheel tends to remain straight and not just wander off in every direction. If a bicycle had its steering axis straight up and down, you would have a heck of a time riding "no hands".
Besides the design, the model nosewheel struts usually have several coils wound in, supposedly for "spring action". Tell me, how is the strut supposed to flex and spring back when the coils are wound so tight that they rub against each other? At least if the coils were wound with a small space between them, it would have a fighting chance. As it is, they just bend and take a set, usually at a point just above the coils. I suspect the temper of the wire on many of them may not be quite right either. Many (not all) main gear struts are afflicted with too-tight-coils too.
I have been complaining about this for 35 years or so but, alas, have been but a voice crying in the wilderness... (Ok, admittedly, I have not written any manufacturers about it, but you must realize that this comes in Vol. XIX, Chapter 28, Sec. E, Verse 36 of "Tom's Pet Peeves". If I wrote this complaint, I'd have to write all the others too. I haven't got time to write that many letters. It's more fun to get on RCU and squawk.)
In full size, after having been brought up on milk stools, taking some dual in a tail dragger for the first time was a rude awakening. I had read many articles, both for models and full size, about the "tail dragger challenge" for nosewheel pilots. Strangely, not one of them ever explained what the actual problem is. But my instructor explained it well. On the tricycle, the mains are BEHIND the center of gravity. Any side forces are automatically counteracted by the mains that want to stay nicely in trail. On the taildragger the mains are AHEAD of the CG. Any slight deviation from rolling straight ahead tends to worsen. Of course! The light bulb went off. It occurred to me that this situation is much like a big truck; a tail dragger rolling forward is like a tractor-trailer backing up - the slightest deviation from dead straight tends to increase. The tricycle gear acts more like the tractor-trailer going forward.
These tendencies are more pronounced on a hard surface than on grass which tends to help the tailwheel resist side forces a bit better.
On the full size the tailwheel steering had springs (the full size really needs them) but that gave me a problem with the timing. The nose would start to swing, I'd stomp on a pedal, and nothing would happen right away. Getting worried, I'd stomp a little harder but just about then was when it was going to respond anyway and now I had too much and the nose would suddenly swing the other way. The cycle would repeat till the instructor grabbed it before I took out a runway light. Takeoffs were giving me more trouble than landings. But the landings were not trouble free either. Landing a tricycle, after all 3 wheels are on, you get in the habit of mentally relaxing ("Ah, I made it!") You are lulled into a false sense of security. On a taildragger, it WAS well behaved up to now but that's just the point where the adventure begins. As the airplane slows and airflow over the rudder is reduced, its stabilizing force vanishes and just where you start letting down your guard it suddenly starts getting squirrelly, trying to go every which way but straight. This is the reason for the old saying that you are not finished landing a taildragger until the hangar door is locked.
If I'd had the opportunity to continue flying the Citabria, I would have eventually developed the "feel" and the timing and would surely have "conquered" it, but things didn't work out that way.
These days I have no such problems with models and really enjoy the taildraggers. I have even simplified things in this way: on several of mine I did away entirely with tailwheel steering and just let it caster freely, steering with the prop blast over the rudder. This saved transmitting a lot of impact loads and vibration to the servo and the rudder hinges. It worked out fine - on grass, anyway. Granted, the steering was slightly less positive but only slightly - sometimes the tailwheel is on one side and I have to goose it some and hold opposite rudder to get the wheel to swing over but this is really not a big deal. How much precision do you really need in your ground handling anyway? I don't need to navigate a slalom course at my field so it's well worth it to save a beating on my servos and hinges and some building time and really, I give up very little in ground handling. It just feels a little different.
I wonder if we are doing newcomers such a big favor by adhering to the Modeling Law that says trainers MUST have nosewheels. Ever watch the circus when someone has his nosewheel steering too sensitive? People set Olympic records shinnying up flagpoles and trees and diving behind cars...
Tom