I think that half the trick with doing scale is just not to use things that are recognizable and standard commercial products. That's why I tend to stay away from "linen" or "antique" Solartex. It's a great product but it's also recognizable from a hundred yards as linen or antique Solartex. It fairly well screams out the fact. The WB guns are fantastic but it's important to put some effort into making them look a bit more realistic (for example the trick of painting them flat black then smearing with pencil graphite for a good worn metal look). Same goes for clevises. Clevises are actually a pretty clever little device, but they are just so obvious on a model...particularly a smaller scale one. By using something like the MR turnbuckles (and/or fork-ends) it looks "different somehow" and that can trick people (me) into believing that they are somehow actually correct...or at least they don't distract from the total effect.

I do appreciate each and every suggestion here as they all help my often slow thought processes.