Revell 1:83 Mayflower

One way to create the wood look above waterline is to paint with one color of brown or wood, then dry brush another shade over highlights.  Or, I know a friend who actually paints plastic ship models with wood stains, via brush.  That looks pretty good.

As far as rigging, leave sails off, depicting at anchor long enough to unbend sails.  Yeah, ditch the rigging and do shrouds and ratlines with thread.  Some aftermarket blocks may add some in appearance over plastic blocks, but the plastic ones can be painted to look pretty reasonable.

Good thread is getting a bit hard to get- Model Expo is still a good supplier, and some of us are using fly tying monofilament for the real thin stuff.

In order- there's been a CLINIC on wood painting techniques here on this very forum in the last year. Take a look at threads about the Black Swan, Cog, Carrack, Nina/Pinta and others.

Premolded rigging is worse than no rigging.

There are no "aftermarket" parts for this kit. But there are plenty of sources for rigging and such supplies, all of which you will see in the above.

Ditch the sails. Making new ones for an "under sail" condition is really hard. No sails would be fine.Furled sails can be a plan, but it would take some thought. many ships of this era lowered the yards and sails rather than the more contemporary practice of sending sailors aloft to stow them.

But it's been a great year for 15th-16th-17th century builds around here.

That's a great kit, I love the figures.