oooo, I've got to say, this make's me sad that I'm in the carebear-ish ISS and therefore won't be involved in this at all...

ah well
But, as for the question of how much time would it take to compete? There is a wonderful fact of Eve that the most powerful thing you can have is a friend. I could deck a battleship out in full faction gear and eat you alive everytime... but all that expensive gear? Not as good as having a friend.
This makes me wanna break my Harpy in... extra much