There's nothing wrong with starting out with a regular plastic HL tank at all, especially if you plan to hand it off to a youngster to putt around in! The newer HL models are actually a big improvement over the Tiger and Panzers of many years ago although there really isn't a glaring mechanical issue in those either. Consider what you want and if you want advice on vendors feel free to dig around, try to avoid Amazon for a tank as they're usually very overpriced. Ebay isn't bad, and assuming you're in the UK there are actually a few local vendors (Forgebear, Welsh Dragon Models) that might interest you.