I don't do much drawing so my small Intuos 3 is a good size. I think it's a widescreen version of the smallest model, 4x6" active area. I went small for portability because I often pack it with my laptop to a coffee shop or to school to take class notes with Onenote or do diagramming type stuff. I agree that unless you already have muscle memory for taking large drawing strokes, a smaller version will work as well or better for you, besides saving money.

If you haven't yet purchased, I second the advice about having a two-button pen; I'm not sure if the Bamboo or Fun models have them. And the disconnect between pen and screen will disappear immediately for you since you sound like you have spent a long time around computers.

Regarding MoI and other applications, I find I still like to have comfortable access to the keyboard for hotkeys or navigating with keyboard (like hitting a key to jump to a file while browsing a large folder). That said, I'm still pretty fast with MoI without a keyboard thanks to the interface. Michael, is there any way to completely alter the shift/ctrl/alt modifiers or completely swapping middle and right mouse buttons (where middle mouse is then also the primary command/Enter button)? The reason I ask is that the touch strip on my tablet doesn't work; it only responds to pen input. I would prefer to zoom with that strip, as I suspect most users do, except I'd have to look at the pad to aim the pen each time. Instead I use the default wacom assignment for Ctrl in combination with the default pen button for right click. And navigation in MoI is still great and fluid. The only slight problem I have is in the 3d view because I can't find a happy medium for zoom, pan, and rotate (without resorting to the quick navigation tools at the view bottom in order to Pan). This is pretty nitpicky though as a quick tap on Reset and I'm aimed at what I want.

I'm not sure if anyone answered the OP about buying MoI itself so I'll say that I believe it to be a good purchase. There are a great many apps out there that aren't nearly as fluid and clean and cost much more. That assessment is dependent on you already feeling like you are getting decent results or otherwise 'getting' the app after only a little time. If you're frustrated or fighting with it after two weeks then maybe something else would be better suited, who knows? Like you, I'm using MoI mostly for hobbyist game models and it feels like it will give me everything I need now and in the future, sans high-detail organic models that I don't have the time to attempt anyway.