These are many great ideas. I have toyed with the idea of using chopsticks to make wooden masts and sail booms. I will make the sails flat but if you want you could add "3D" booms. Bamboo skewers also should work fine.
The mast is a hexagon tube that has a triangle tube inside for strengthening. You could also roll up thin paper and use it inside for strength.
The whitebuild is a more "fragile" prototype. You are absolutely right, the final thing has have stronger rings. I just slap on more paper layers but of course you can use any material like drinking straws to make the rings more durable.
The ratlines and the sails will be double sides. They have to look good from any POV
But also it will strengthen the parts. I found the pure paper ratlines to bend a little and was thinking one could add a wire in between the two layers to make it more straight.
I am building the textured ratlines right now so I will have pics on that soon.
On the top of the mast I will make a little extension mast (pure paper of course but could be replaced with a toothpick!) where flags would go, like the famous pirate skulls one. I will provide parts for that too.
I think if you want customize the ships there will be many options to make a "hero" model. It will depend if you want to build a couple of ships to form a small fleet or you want to build a centerpiece model.
So today I want to show you the customizing options.
The ship will come with two basic wood skins. One is a lighter wood with dark details and one is the opposite. But then you can change the colors of different sections.
Here you see the two starter skins and the different sections that you can customize. Each of these (color coded here) you can change to red, blue, green, yellow, white and black. This will give you gazillions of options for unique boats. Mix that with the usual color modifiers I provide (darker, lighter, warmer, cooler, bleached) ... I don't even know how to calculate all possible options
So this build has a blue hull with yellow top rail and top line, a dark blue bottom line detail and a white bottom hull. Once I add the weathering to reflect dirt and scratches it will look even better!
OK, on to finalizing the sail rig and textures. I will leave the swivel guns for last, but adding these will turn a regular fishing boat into a menacing pirate ship!
Chris