You 1/700 guys have always had it hard! When I was a kid back in the late 1970s, I picked up a Hasegawa Kirishima for $14, a princely sum at the time. And when I got home, I found out that "Waterline Series" meant half the ship was not included! 
Still, a friend who almost exclusively builds 1/700 waterline kits has told me that there has been no better time than today for the genre. Ships that have been long neglected are coming out as plastic kits, and newer versions of previously kitted subjects are appearing with much higher levels of detail. It's a great time to be a modeler.