Request for Advice on Selecting Equip for a SCADA Lab

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Hi Folks! I'm new to the forums, but was hoping some of you seasoned Siemens vets could give me some advice. I work in cybersec, am trying to quickly get up to speed on ICS/SCADA, and am looking at getting started in setting up a lab for testing ICS/SCADA equipment from a wide variety of vendors, but want to start small with Siemens (those are my marching orders). (1.) I'm thinking that the best approach is to start at the PLC end of the spectrum and build up from a single PLC with one or two inputs/outputs. Then, once i have 2 PLCs from different manufacturers, try to fold them into a single system with SCADA system/control-room-type software and perhaps add HMI, and then figure out how to add a database/historian. Does this scaled approach (and how I'm describing these components) make sense? If not, how would you do it? (2.)I've done some research and it looks like the most popular/widely-used Siemens PLCs are S7-300, -400, and -1200 (correct me if I'm totally off base, by all means!). I'm seeing lots of used 300s and 400s available for what look to me like pretty reasonable prices, so I thought I'd start with one of those (any reason for picking one over the other?). (3.) From the installation manuals, it looks like at a minimum I'm going to need the following: -- Backplate / rack / rail -- CPU -- Power supply -- input/output modules (at least one of each I presume) -- a laptop to program the PLCs -- STEP7 software - I've read that you can get a trial version that's good for XX days? Is it expensive to buy a license for long-term use? (4.) I'd like a few farily simple output and input devices. Would welcome some recommendations on cheap but amusing/interesting ideas. Light bulbs and pushbuttons are fine but will probably get boring I imagine. What considerations should I think about? (5.) Do I need some sort of SCADA system software to act as the master control center... i imagine if I later add additional PLCs from other manufacturers, I'd want them all to be able to work together. Would something open-sourced like OpenSCADA be good? Know of better/cheap/free options (or with a reasonable license fee that's well worth the money)? (6.) What else am I not thinking about? I'm a comp-sci guy, not an EE, so I'll be elbows deep in the manuals and figuring outa lot from scratch. Sincerely appreciate any thoughs, comments or suggestions any of you can offer. Cheers! PR