Hi Nick,
The bad news: you bought a VMAR
The good news: Its a trainer, so a few weeks from now it will be smashed and you will be glad you got a cheap one, or you will have learned to fly and ready for something else, and glad you got a cheap one.
The Vmar Apache was popular for a while at my club. They have the easy to overheat stick-on covering, as do Hobbyco, Tower,and many of the other low-buget trainers, but they are cheap, easy to fly, and easy to fix with tape and CA. All of which are excelent qualities for a trainer. I had one for a couple months. Sold it once i got solo qualified, and although it is no shining example of model making, it served its function for me, and it is still getting weekly use a year later.
ARFs are pretty commonly lacking in firewall strength. Many of us end up adding triangle stock to the inside of the fuse to beef it up. A friend had a similar problem with an Ultra Stick 40 ARF a couple weeks ago. Good plane, they just tend to take that shortcut. Love the GP ARFs, but even the GP's will take some finesse on your part to get it set up, working well, and maintained. It really is a builders sport, hard to get around it.
Not sure about the GP 51, but other 51's tend to be extreemly vulnerable to tip stalls on landing aproaches, its a very impressive and humbling experience. No amount of Cessna 152 or Trainer RC will prepair you for it.
Regarding world models,
Just built a World Models Zero/ Yak/p40 (depends on what stickers you put on it
) Pretty sure it is the cheapest plane World models makes, and guess what?! Iron-on non-sticky covering, straight and light wings & fuse, Braced firewall, good hardware, fiberglass cowl. All for 75$. Easy to toss together too. Not pretty design, but they are popular here for open combat and goofing off.
Haven't seen any of the regular world models lineup in person, but they look great in the cataloge, and a couple people here have good things to say about them. My airplane closet is full, but once there is a vacancy, i might give another World Model a shot. (after checking up with folks here at RCU.) Anyone have the Cap 232 120? or the Zero 60?
Well sirs, have fun and best of luck!
shmo