Probably a good choice. If that money does burn a hole in your wallet, consider a new trainer with floats. Gives you a whole nother aspect to explore (float flying, it's a blast!), and the plane converts back to wheels with relative ease. Float flying is anything but boring. but do master take-offs and landings first. While water is softer than earth, it still tears'em up pretty good!

With a little basic building experience, you could bash about any trainer into a pretty pseudo-scale plane that you'll like, and that will fly same as ever. Just avoid adding weight, and keep the wing/stab/finn areas and incidences unchanged.

You've asked a question here to which you already had a perferred answer. We're working real hard to push you away from that, and it looks like it might work... This is great!

J