It's strange but they look quite thick in the photos whereas on your models thay are hardly visible - where's the bloke?
I think it's the camera deceiving the eye or vice-versa, they don't look so prominent to the naked eye although they are probably over-scale. The rigging material is EZ line, roughly 0.1 dia before stretching, stretched to about twice its free length. If you do the maths, stretching x2 don't mean the diameter is reduced by half, so it's all guesswork really and trying not to put too much strain on the brass-work, which is very fragile.
As for "Wally", it would depend on his rank. The most senior officers would have marble halls with gold plated fittings, the junior officers would have stainless steel jobbies, the ratings would just have pot ones without wooden seats, the engineers would have to put up with a five gallon oil drum with the top chopped off and protected with an old bike tyre to protect the nether regions. All to do with class y'know.
Haddock.
