I had one of those models at one point too (actually, my son dismantled it like last week).
If your mum is willing to support/fund your art I really would say that you can't go wrong using both the photo and physical models. But also, as Inari Rose posted, you can sometimes get them for super cheap, and they aren't bad at all (mine was also like...$9, the only difference between the one in the picture was that mine was unfinished).
On a more on-topic subject, something I had alot of fun with was looking up the anatomy of different animals and combining it with human anatomy for some really interesting anthros. I'm actually sorting through some of my realy old art this year, so if I find any of those wierd/crazy things I'll post 'em in here for giggles.









