I have a Belt CP and love it but I have been messing with Helos for 2 years now and started with an FP Walkera #4. Good for learning and cheap to fix. ESky makes 2 good Micros. The Honeybee FP and CP. The CP is a cheap Blade CP and will teach the basics of Collective pitch flight but they are very twitchy. If you can fly a Micro you can fly anything.

I can't recommend the Belt or a TREX for a 1st bird because you are now into the relm of Highly functional, Almost mechanically scale Helicopters. One, they can hurt or remove parts of your body if your not careful with them and they are not very forgiving. Two, without they can be tough to learn on. Many people have jumped into the 450 size helos alone and where dissappointed by not knowing how to set them up properly and crashing them and ultimately blaming the helo for their failure.

What I would do, is get a Honey Bee King V2.
It's bigger than a 300 but smaller than a 450. We'll call it a 375 size

Belt driven tail like the big boys
Comes with a radio set-up, gyro, Li-Po battery and a charger(get a better one)
A brushed motor and ESC to get your thumbs used to hovering and basic flight and you can upgrade to a brushless set-up for around $50 when you are ready.
The Head and swashplate are almost the same as the Belt so it would help familiarize yourself with the workings of the larger helos.


http://www.helidirect.com/product_in...oducts_id=3123

Good Luck

If I had to start over, this is what I would start with.