Skypup,
I strarted fussing with an airplane ESC and a servo operated reversing switch. I worked ok but did take up a lot of room in a scratch built little tender for my Porter. The I picked up a boat ESC which has forward and reserve capabilities. It works fine but its very sensitive on the inputs from the transmitter. I still putter around with it, putting it into a critter, but its just a bit too sensitive when tryijng to do low speed moves. These ESC's also have a low switching rate so you'll probably get a whine from the motor which can be annoying. Here's a vendor who offers forward/reverse ESC's which a very high switching rate so that they won't generate motor whine-
http://www.dimensionengineering.com/- try their SyRen 10.
I have since started using RCS's EVO B3 speed controls. I'm also using an Aristocraft 27mhz Train Engineer crammed into a small tender. You sound like you're coming from an RC background (planes or surface). You have to realise that RC RR'ing speed controls operate differently in that you "ramp" up to a speed then you stop inputing via the throttle stick and the speed control maintains the speed you at which you left it until you make another speed input. The RR dedicated speed controls are considerably more expensive than "conventional" ESC's but have additional features. The RCS units are very easy to install and work exceptional well.
Your choice of 2.4 ghz is a great idea. You still have to try to keep motors and ESC's isolated from each other to limit emf. Chokes help.
Hope this is useful to you,
Dave