help/advice needed

I stick to 1/700 because of space considerations, and besides Skywave, give these guys a look: http://home.earthlink.net/~loosecannonproductions/index-dock.html . Loose Cannon makes some very good resin ship kits of the "auxiliaries," the tugs and yard craft and smaller combatants; in addition they have transports of several varieties, white metal vehicle sets (which I have not used), and dockyard sections and buildings. Hugh and Dave are great guys to work with, and they have excellent customer service. 

Don't write off 1:350 scale

ISW offers dock sections with rolling stock.  

http://www.commanderseries.com/accessories.html

I believe that the Resin Dockyard of Canada either has, or will have soon, dock parts too.

I've always wanted to do a dock scene where a cargo ship was onloading an armored brigade.  You would'nt need a dock crane as cargo ships (AKs or Liberties) could handle it with their own booms.

Other dock thoughts in 1:350 - a fresh from the yard DD or DE undergoing inclining tests or provisioning from freight cars

 

Wolfie,

Skywave makes some 1/700 diorama accessories that look like they would be great for a port diorama, but I've never actually seen the insides of these kits.  Go here http://www.internethobbies.com/ and do a search for "skywave" and these kits will pop up.  I've built some architectural models in 1/500 scale, and in that scale I create buildings from scratch using Evergreen or Plastruct stock.  I would do the same for 1/700 scale.  As for vehicles, I'm sure someone will jump in here and tell you where you can get them in 1/700, I see them all the time in cargo ship builds which have tanks, trucks and jeeps on deck.  If you plan an airstrip near your port, you can use Trumpeter 1/700 aircraft to populate it.  Ports are interesting places and you could have a lot of fun with the whole concept, including adding a few watering holes right outside the main gate.  Good luck!