I would advise taking Benny's offer and head on down to his digs for a hands on look-see. A trip to Danville is also an eyeopener and I think they have a meet this coming weekend. AAF museum in Danville has all the Tamiya tanks in stock, usually, and you can look at each one and see the quality of manufacture and design. The last time I looked they also had Taigen tanks, at least some of them, in stock.

By building the Tamiya kit, and they are not a master craftsman's kit by any stretch of the imagination and have very clear instructions, you get everything in one box except for the radio and battery. I would recommend a simple 4 channel radio to start with. The Tamiya electronics are 'plug and play' and pretty hard to hook up incorrectly. The Tamiya protocol for IR combat is the standard of our hobby and the system is also plug and play and it works. Tamiya is guaranteed in US by Tamiya USA in California. Kit prices are quite reasonable for today's times and are acknowledged as being the best in our hobby. I bought my first Tamiya kit, a King Tiger, in 1992 at a little antique shop in Mt. Dora, Florida in 1992. I've still got it although the transmissions were upgraded twice as things evolved in our hobby and the Tamiya electronics, which were not offered back then, have been in the tank since 2001.

Most, not all but most, of the Tamiya kits have aluminum hulls and everything bolts to the aluminum hull. This is not true of some other makes and I will simply caution that on some advertisements for other manufacturers, the phrase 'full metal' does not by mean 'all metal' and it may also not mean 'aluminum' and it does not mean that all the suspension and motive goodies are attached to 'metal', many are attached to plastic in the construct.

Bottom line, research, and I recommend getting with Benny, before you buy. This is a great hobby in which you can do pretty much all you want to do. Some, and I've done this from time to time, go to great measures to build historic models that are correct down to the last detail of one individual tank at one set time in history. Others, and I've done this, too, build a great running out of the box kit and have at it, everything from simple once every couple weeks a Sunday drive in the living room to die hard no prisoners taken combat at Danville and/or local clubs. It's your call in the end.

As an aside, I'm retired, too, 12 years ago. One piece of advice. The book 'What To Do With All The Spare Time When You Retire' is a flat out lie. They ain't no spare time! You can also contact me through the link in my signature or via PM on the forum. I'm 8 hours ahead of US East Coast time and the computer is on 24/7.