If you don't mind working on 1/700 scale, or working in resin, the range of kits from the Russian firm Combrig is very much worth a look. It's a huge range, concentrating mainly on Russian and Soviet subjects, but recently the company has been branching into British subjects. A few months ago they did an H.M.S. Tiger (the WWI battlecruiser) that got rave reviews, and their latest is the most overdue subject in the world of ship modeling: H.M.S. Dreadnought. There's a review of it on the Steel Navy website (<www.steelnavy.com>). It looks beautiful.
One great thing about Combrig kits: by the standards of resin manufacturers they're very reasonably priced. (I suspect the exchange rate for Russian currency has something to do with that.) Their instruction sheets leave something to be desired (though I understand the recent ones are much improved), but their castings are first-rate. Their most recent kits (including the Dreadnought) have photo-etched brass parts as well.
I should say that I've only got one Combrig kit (the Russo-Japanese War battleship Imperator Alexander III), and I haven't built it yet. But it's at the top of my "Gotta Build" pile. I don't have lots of experience with resin kits, but it looks to me like an excellent material for many purposes. I'm impressed, for instance, with the boat davits in that kit. The resin is just a little bit flexible; you can bend the davits quite a bit without breaking them, yet they take paint ok.
Worth checking out.
Youth, talent, hard work, and enthusiasm are no match for old age and treachery.