I found that crochet thread , size's 8 and 12, has a nice twist, little or no fuzz , and tan is very close to new hemp rope color. Size 8 is for hand rope and size 12 works great on my winch drums. There are several manufactorers of this stuff, DML seem to be the best of several brands I looked at. It's in the Needle and Yarn section's of Craft stores.
Summer's tough on model time, but stuff gathering goes on in all seasons.

Hey David, good point. Sometimes we take for granted that everyone knows what we know after so many years of doing it.