ORIGINAL: C4ISTAR
• Plus, a new person gets a good looking pro hobby model he/she can weather, add upgrade parts to, modify, repair, maintain and reverse engineer themselves into understanding how the model works, before ever attempting to build a kit ...Plus the built kit is supported with factory replacement parts and a bunch of after market parts.
Solid analysis - and that's pretty much exactly my mindset when I ordered one of these (the factory built Tamiya Panther G) a week ago from Axels Modellbau in Germany. Not cheap, but I saw it as a reasonably good value. YMMV.
I do plan on building one (a Sherman) within the next year, but having one on hand to reverse engineer as you say will be a big help to me in building my own. In the meantime, I'm also doing some modifications to my HL Panther G and KV-1, and learning how to paint and airbrush. I know that some will turn their nose up at this approach (the factory built Tamiya) but as someone who has had many diverse interests over the years, one thing I've learned is that there are many ways to enjoy a hobby - within reason no right and wrong ways - and those that are most beneficial to the given community are those that understand that basic principle.