Hi Steve, scale preference is entirely up to you and your ability to construct the smaller scale kits. There is a huge variety of kits available in 1:72 and 1:48 scales from a multitude of manufacturers, some are excellent with great detail while others are fairly basic and need work. The 1:32 scale kits are somewhat limited but new releases are happening on a regular basis which is increasing the available range. Roden have a good range of 1:32 kits as does Wingnuts, the latter being the ultimate in 1:32 scale WW1 model aircraft kits.
The hints and tips section is a good place to post questions, there are many very experienced modelers on the forum and they are all willing to share their knowledge, I'm sure that any questions you have will be answered quite quickly. Please feel free to ask as many questions as you like, no question is regarded as trivial.
There is a new board which was only started yesterday, Specific Aircraft Build Links, this will be an excellent place to look for a particular model and to see how other modelers have gone through the construction process, it will help less experienced modelers deal with any issues with the kits and will offer great advice on how to build the model.
Des.