Since it sounds like you are interested in making new textures and seeing how they are applied, rather than doing the actual UVing as such, I'd recommend getting some of Aldo's old fighters to start with (available in the Reciprocity forums, methinks). His method back then involved using a map for each side of the fighter (i.e. top, left, right, bottom, front, back), which made it easy to learn the basics of (re)skinning and how the UV is applied to the model. One need only erase the original data and create new stuff in it's place.
Once you've got the hang of them, try something that uses a single map for the whole fighter.
