Chuckling... I defer to Lou in all things related to control line... and wish I remembered half of what he has told me in the past. That said many many thousands of Ringmasters were built stock and flew well enough for a beginner to get his feet wet. I have one in my garage that is about 50 years old, oil soaked and has a Fox 35 on it from that era. At a minumum hundreds of flights. All without any modifications and with the crappy glues we use to use on models. Lots of good advice here (much of which I would take) but the plane can be built to plans and flown... most of the advice will let you keep it longer if you do not have too many hard landings (read crash).
Have fun and see you in the circle,
Bob Furr