Any good modern ARF today will come covered in real covering like Monokote or Ultracote. Only cheap and/or outdated ARFs today and ARFs up to the mid 1990s had this shelf paper sticky back garbage.
I recomend an ARF trainer. In fact an ARF will likely be lighter than it's kit counterpart because most kits today are too old in design and were designed to crash, not to fly. They are designed the way they were in the 1980s or 1970s, way overbuilt and too heavy.
The Avistar ARF I reccomended is big enough 60inch wingspan, light, its strong, its well built has a semi-symetrical wing, has full 4 channel control, and flies pretty much like a second plane after you learn the basics. Definitely stay away from anything under 40 size in a trainer, they fly like crap and the wind effects them too much. The Avistar will take a lot of abuse, trust me I know first hand..

For the most part american .40 size kits suck. They cost much more to build than ARFS- you must buy a lot of extra parts on top of the kits cost, take way more time, they are heavier, and you risk building them wrong and having them fly badly.
ARF trainers are the way to go if you want to learn to fly and not spend a long time before ever getting to the field.
And dont buy any of this you will be a better pilot if you build it stuff, thats nonsense. Flying skill is just about time in the AIR not at the workbench. You wont learn smooth landings by building the plane, nor will you learn slow flight, or inverted flight, or rudder use or anything.
Buy an ARF, build it by the directions and INPUT OF EXPERIENCED CLUB MEMBERS and go fly.
If you want build anyway, build your second or third planes as you are learning to fly your ARF trainer.
Again if you want to learn flying buy a quality ARF.
This plane is the best IMHO.
http://www2.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0001p?&I=LXMU53**&P=7For $300 US you get plane, engine and full radio setup.