I became interested in R/C planes early in 2005 . My first "real" plane was the F27 stryker. I bought it, charged the battery, took it to the local park. Did as the directions told me, threw the plane.... PLunk. It hits the ground, breaking off the nose. I take it back to the Hobby Shop, ask the Plane Expert and take it this time to a school which has a HUGE set of fields in the back and tried launching it again, with no luck. Finally, I go to another park with about 6 acres of wide open space. I wound out the motor , threw it at the "proper" delta wing angle and , it flew, and crashed. In total I've crashed this plane about 10 times, broken it 5/6 times and it was still air-worthy.
I recently decided to give it a re-body. This is actually a very cheap airplane to either build from your own parts, or to rebuild using the parts it came with


Here is the Stryker as it comes from the manufacturer. The paint peels very easily from the foam , and the paint job is cool at first until you realize there's not a whole lot of customization that can be done.


Now, Here is the new body and paint job:





It still features the old motor, Reciever, etc. I have, however, learned a lot about what can be done with this fuselage and a few modifiations. Visit the Stryker forum at the R/C forums. There is much to learn here, such as a 18-21 oz piece of foam flying at over 85 mph!
You could also join my group at yahoo devoted to the stryker both the stock bird and as it is called "The Dark Side".