most of the great planes kit make good fist kits.

I'd say

build an uproar, great simple first kits, my last one I biult in 5 6 hour days. then a GP ultra sport 60, awesome flying kit it it's own right but get you some experience with large sheeting and a retract install. Since your looking for experience I suggest putting in a pneumatic set in the ultra sport just for experience. There are no mechanical retract set that can support giant scale. then go for a top flight giant scale warbird kit. But its up to you