Wow, thanks for all the replies guys! As far as my first tank, I think I'll go with something a little less pricey to get the feel of things. I've always wanted to own a Tiger 1 (who hasn't, heh) so I think i will be going for the Heng Long version of it (smoke & sound). I'm not going to worry about battling just yet, just to give things a test run first.

Building kits from scratch is probably the most rewarding aspect of a hobby in my opionion, but I just don't have the time and experience to buy a kit. Soon I hope to assemble my own kits, and maybe some day (a long way from now) buy some plans and work on one from scratch. I've seen some of the 1/4 and 1/6 ones and I've got to say they are pricey! A few websites i checked were selling Tiger 1 models at 1/4 for 11,000 USD and another for 5700 euros. At this point it's just taunting me, lol.

Over the past few days I've been hunting for a 1/16 Heng Long Tiger 1, but every website I visit has them out of stock. There are a few selections in stock but they're usually just the plain grey ones. I was looking for the desert camo (yellow/light green, brown, etc) version but those seem to be the most popular. As far as e-bay goes, I've never trusted any of the retailers there. If I have to I don't mind using ebay, but I just have a bad feeling about the reliability of their products because they are not sold professionally. I'm just going to keep looking around for the Heng Ling tiger in the meantime.

Again thanks for all the great advice and It'll definitely help me get under way into the hobby.
(Hey ManMachine sorry if I confused you with hatakashi because his name was gabriel too , yeah he was the one who led me to this website)