I'll have to disagree with one of your statements bdavison,

I would say that I'm more of a 3D novice, just learning to hover and what not... I made a junker 4D out of Bluecor to fix the durability issues and flew it with a little wind. It was the most enjoyable 3D flight I've had. I was able to hover it for a few seconds and because I don't have a comp. radio for my other, more, conventional foamy models, I thought it flew very predictably and didn't crash once over 2 1320s of flight time.

Mine was blown up to a 30" ws

For those just entering 3D flight w/o a comp. radio, I would strongly suggest a 4D based design, but not necessarily the original. It's ultimately just personal preferece.
I'm looking for different plans to try out, do you have any suggestions bdavison?