I painted most of my ships Navy Grey on the hull and some other color on the deck. I painted a red dot on the IJN carriers and battleships. As a matter of fact, I didn’t have to paint the decks of the IJN. I just left them orange. I know this sounds strange, but once you paint the hull, the deck looks darker, and the orange almost passes for a brown. I paintedthe decks of my US ships “wood”, the decks of my UK ships “Armor Sand” (the same color I used for tropical british forces), and the decks of the German ships a light grey. I didn’t have to paint the hulls of the Germans because they were already close enough to Navy Grey. I did paint the superstructure of the ships a dark color, or silver, depending on who they were. I know some folks will say these colors are not accurate enough, but they are good enough for me and painted figures really make the game feel better. Any A&A player that visits to play will leave with drool all over their shirt.
Once you paint the ships, you will want to paint the planes. You will need aluminum or silver for the “canopy glass”. I painted the UK fighters either a temperate green or the armor sand color. The US stuff was OD green. The germans were painted in a medium grey (a little lighter than the mold plastic). The Jap planes were painted “sand”. The Rus planes were painted with a medium to pale brown.
Then you will want to paint the ground units. Have fun. I’ve only painted about 3/4 of my original Revised set of pieces, and a few extra pieces from my AAG game.