1) Nice!

2) Nice!

3) Number of lights for germination/seedling is gonna depend on how many plants. Are you going to do one strain at a time? Your plan to start with the MH and then later get HPS sounds fine to me

4) search eBay, using "mylar reflective" as your search term

5) smaller pots, then move up as plant grows

6) don't veg that long dude! I'd say switch to 12/12 at 4ft, but will still be close. You'll get that figured out once you have a feel for your strains. From seed, you're going to have plants at variable heights. When you're dialed in for production, you'll be cutting clones to all same height, select plants for uniformity, etc.

7) I can't recommend a fert to you cuz I'm still experimenting with them all myself, but keep in mind you can use some hydro ferts in soil..

8) Heat from 2 400w HID's in that size room won't be bad at all. You'll want 1-2 fans to blow air on the plants

9) sounds interesting

10) As a ball-park figure that will be COMPLETELY off, but will give you a number to use in your estimates is 2 oz per plant, given you are using 400w. When you start using those 1000W HPS you'll get alot more. Shipping container: ground should keep it cool down there I would think. Venting, power, water, etc could be difficult to disguise. Could put a little building over the container or something, so you wont just have a pipe sticking out of the ground for exhaust:-) Also, do you get snow/ice in your area? Hot exhaust air could melt the snow around your site...and give you away.

Good luck dude. Wish you the best.

Dboy