Rock  8)

Holy cow.  I got the Italian WW2 fleet pack and British "old navy" WW2 fleet pack -- which covers everything I would need in the Med up until 1943 -- as an early Christmas present.

I was a bit intimidated at first.  Looking at a Conte di Cavour class battleship when it's only, like, 1.2" long and realizing you want to PAINT it...and make it look worth a damn.....jeesh

But it's working out!  Got the Giulio Cesare painted in about an hour (took a while as it was the first ship to try).   And I actually have it on pretty historical lines.  Finding color photos of 1/700 models on steelnavy.com, I painted its hull and turrets and superstructure grey,  tiger-striping darker gunmetal grey to emulate the camo patterns used by the Regia Marina.  Aft of its rear main guns you have the wooden deck planking.  Around the midship portion you have the armored deck.  And then forward of the other main guns you have the distinctive red and white pattern they were using for aerial ship identification.  Painted the provided base "ocean blue," and the finished product looks a LOT nicer than I originally hoped. 

I got a pair of Condottieri class cruisers done in less time than that, and again, looking solid.  Give yourself a couple of hours, and you can paint everything you need for a historical cruiser action.

These really are nice playing pieces.  And for crying out loud, you get the entire Italian surface navy for about $70.  They're gonna be put to use after Christmas

Just a recommendation.