I built a "Houdini" from MAN plans. That was supposed to be a rudder-only R/C plane for a .15. It ended up with rudder and elevator and a Fox .29 Stunt or a Fox .201. Worked out pretty good, actually. It flew very well inverted, despite massive dihederal and a flat bottomed airfoil! Who'da thunk?
Two stunters were built off magazine articles by scaling up the plans...a Mathis "Excalibur" and a profile version of a James Wilson "Dominator". Both flew quite well, tho I think I could make them fly a lot better now. Bigger bellcranks, better fuel tanks, CG shifts, better props, fuel, etc.
Kits (back then) generally didn't set well with me. I made a lot of Comet and Cleveland stick kits, a 1/2A CG Blazer, a Jasco Trooper, and a Ramrod 600 from kits. That Berkley kit wasn't nice. Sal Taibi's kits were great. Sterling Ringmaster, "Super Swoop", Fliteline "Sneaker", Veco "Big Iron", etc. Some of them were just horrible kits. The Sal Taibi, Jasco, and Riley's kits were outstanding. Otherwise, I found it a lot less agonizing to just build from scratch, which often meant designing my own. Most flew somewhere between ok and real good, mostly a weight thing. "Simplicate and add lightness" is a good theme song that was never written.
Steve