I saw the post "Best 1st Expensive Model" and at first I thought it was asking,what was the first kit you took the dive and dropped bigger bucks on.So I thought that was a fun topic to start anyway.
For me it was back in the 80's it was Tamiya's 1/32 Tomcat.For a beginner it went fairly well,of course I painted it in the Jolly Rogers scheme.I don't remember what I paid,but for the time it was far and above the norm.