The best 1/350 figures I've encountered are resin ones made by a Russian company called North Star. Free Time Hobbies sells them: http://www.freetimehobbies.com/NSA350508/ . The link goes to one of the three sets of USN figures; the company makes quite a few other sets. To get the best impression of what they actually look like, click on the third thumbnail below the big photo.
I bought a couple of the USN figure sets. They are, literally, almost unbelievable. (A complete set, with 77 figures in it, sits on a casting block that's about the size of a postage stamp.) And the price isn't bad for what you get. The biggest problem is that Free TIme usually is out of most of them.
How the masters for these little guys were made I can't imagine. When I compare this sort of thing with what was available to the ship modeler ten, or even five, years ago, I have to wonder what the hobby (obsession might be a better word in cases like this) will look like by 2020 or 2030. I'm not sure whether I envy or pity the modelers who will be around then. The potential for some magnificent models will be there, but the combination of nerves and eyestrain may produce a generation of prematurely blind and senile modelers.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.