Metal, low-wing, plansbuilt

I'm looking into educating myself about metal aircraft construction by
getting a set of plans for a low-wing airplane. The idea is then to
either design my own plane (no, looking at the plans is not the full
education, there's also a master's degree in aerospace engineering,
I'm more looking for detail solutions so I won't have to come up with
everything by myself) or just build the one I got the plans for. My
choice is metal since I'm more confident with this (my skills)+
(material) combination than with others. Wading through the Kitplanes
directories I have a couple of candidates:

Hummel Bird, UltraCruiser
Mustang Aero Midget, Mustang II
Sonex
Zodiac CH 601, 650, XL
DCS Mini Coupe, Teenie Two
Thorp T-18
Emile Lucas L5, L6, L8, L11/12
Pazmany PL-1, PL-2, PL-4
Thatcher CX-4
(oh yeah, then there is also the Ryan ST-R replica, but that's
probably too much to ask for right now)

Judging from my very limited experience, the Sonex plans seem to be
very detailed and complete, but also steep in price ($600 according to
Kitplanes). Zodiacs, T-18s, and Pazmany designs seem to be very
popular, so the plans can't be all that bad? On the lower end, there
are the Hummel, Mustang and DCS, but they get very little coverage,
apart from the occasional mention of the Hummel Bird or the Teenie Two
by VW aficionados (I do like the Mini Coupe, though). Just looking at
the price, the plans can't be as detailed as others. CX-4, L5, L6 etc.
I've never heard of.

So my question is, who has experience with these plans(-built
aircraft) and can recommend a set?

Oliver