Here's my 2p, if you were in the uk I would say buy a used tamiya. In the us it seems to be a little different. Used tamiyas are far more and new kits slightly less. The Taigen tanks with metal chassis are good out the box but you will still need to upgrade the electronics to battle with. There a mod for the king tiger idlers basically replacing the springs with putty, dead easy and works well. Schumo do some replacement inserts too which are fairly cheap. Darrel Turner does amazing work but IMO a lot of it's overkill unless your doing Danville style IR combat.