I have just finished the Airfix golden hinde in 1:72 scale. (I'm so sick of painting triangles, if you have built it you will know what I mean :) )
I agree with you DJDave43, the Airfix tall ships lack bigtime in the rigging department, along with not enough deck detail. I scratch built alot on mine. I added a ships lantern, berrels, buckets, cannon rigging, belaying pins and racks, ships bell, ships head (both at the stem and on the officers gallery), also I added rigging such as the footing ropes on the yards and elaborated on the rest of the rigging to make it more real. I think it looks ten fold better than if I had not added the things I described.
I made parts from wood and wooden craft items (sanding and cutting). A good place to get goodies to add detail is to find an opened kit with a few missing parts real cheap on ebay. For your boat, try and find an old 1/196 revell constitution kit that has been opened. you can get them for around $10.00 on ebay. Goodluck
I now have a Heller 1/100 Le Soleil Royal sitting in front of me. This, like the Heller Victory, is one huge kit with over 2300 parts and did I say huge. It is the same size as the Victory (only difference is the Victory's bowsprit is twice as long making the kit specs seem larger by 10"). I'm waiting to purches a new airbrush and compressor before I tackle it.
Lon