I won a Tamiya 1/16 scale full R/C Tiger I kit from an online modeling contest in 2001. It is a very big vehicle. It can be equipped with a "laser tag" transmitter/receiver in order to battle your friends. I guess this is popular in Japan. Any way, the original price of the kit was $1000. This did not include the required 4-channel transmitter (about $250) and batteries (another $30). As you suggest, it would be quite an expensive hobby (the tank battling I mean).
Tamiya did release a series of their regular 1/35 scale armor kits that came with radio controls. I bought the M1A1 Abrams, and I think their 1990s Tiger and Panther kits were also released with a radio control. The cost was a little more than $100. This is basically turning your kit into a remote controlled toy.
As to a 1/35 scale FT, I hope the Italeri kit comes out. The old RPM one is a fiddly build. It is quite a small tank in the standard scale.
Here is a link to Perth's site with sprue shots of the kit. It looks very good to me.
http://www.perthmilitarymodelling.com/newkitnews/takom.html