I did a few waivers for guys in Vegas a year or two ago, so there are definitely turbine pilots around you who can hopefully help you out as you try to figure out what goes where in a turbine etc. I also visit Vegas several times a year (to feed my wife's slot machine addiction), so may be able to help you out with the waiver process as needed.

There are a whole range of aircraft & engine combos that are beginner friendly - from a Boomerang to a Bobcat, with all of the Facet, DV8R, etc models inbetween, plus the "docile" scale models like the F15 that are also newbie-friendly, and the range of costs varies with the model and the powerplant.

I think that part of your selection process should be based on the question of "what do you want to fly next?" You can get into the turbine world relatively inexpensively with something like a Boomerang and a P60 / Bee / Wren etc., but if the model that you want to fly as your first post-trainer turbine is something that needs a P120 or similar engine, then either you need to be able to afford having 2 turbines at that point, or you are going to have to sell the smaller engine to partially fund the larger engine - and if you need to sell the smaller engine then you should perhaps consider whether economics favour you having a P60 / P80 sized trainer and taking some loss when you sell that engine to buy another, or whether it may be cost effective to just buy the engine that suits your '2nd model" from the get-go and buy a trainer that will handle that powerplant.

Gordon