This model was built as an introduction of my nephew to modelism, I let him choose a model and was not aware of the mould age of this reboxing. I had none of my reference because I was on vacation at his place, but I had all my tools because I was building Revell's Wiesel 2 LeFlaSys with an Eduard upgrade set there. The paint for the ship had to be bought at the toy shop too, I decided to go for a standard acrylic tubes set. The hull I was able to adapt in a few hours of work, but adapting the superstructure would just go too far. My nephew had to be able to start painting the model rather sooner than later, he might have lost interest in it if I presented it as too difficult and fiddly. In earnest I didn't know how to fix the molded-on rows of AA and the rigging running through to holes in the deck.
The only thing I decided that we should replace was the parabolic antenna on the mast, I think I had prepared some aluminium foil to make it look thinner. That never made it to the model, though, because after the ship was painted, he went on to buy some other models and forgot about this one. I didn't really mind because this kind of reconstruction is rather for more experienced modellers. I was already glad the ship made it to this stage:
Of course, the painting of the superstructure would have been much better if the ship was masked off properly and if enough time was spent on it. We made a more convincing approach on a 1/72 Trumpeter Challenger 2 that did get finished, though.
I think, if I would tackle that superstructure, I'd begin with removing the smallest AA guns and try to get to something similar but not too expensive to replace them. I'd drill out the smoke stacks and the searchlight platforms on them and look for some railing. When I started to upgrade my ship's kits and had no PE, I used the mesh that's put in windows to keep out insects. If cut to ribbons, this doesn't look bad on 1/700 models, like this Tamiya Rodney.
(original build log:
https://www.modelbrouwers.nl/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34745&start=20)
You could also improve the cranes, planes and the catapults at the back, but this can get quite cumbersome. This example shows a 1/700 Revell DoY (also a quite basic model without any fine detail OOTB, necessitating a lot of sanding to remove tapering of superstructure parts) with cranes woven entirely with copper thread. But even a less detailed replacement could do, if you succeed at making the structure translucent in stead of blocky.