my first custom ring

First I would replace the rubberband's with JAKK's ring ropes, as they look so much better, or put more rubberband's so they are thick then wrap tape around them to make them look alot better.

For the post's, I think you should wrap them with duck or electrical tape, But I would go with electrical tape as you can get them in a few colours then you could chose which one you like best.

For the ring base/mat, I would buy fomies and use that as a cushion for the figures, Or you could use 'underlay' which is the stuff you put under woodern floor's. You could also get a old t-shirt and use that as a ring mat, or cheap material like felt.

And for the turnbuckles I would just use fomies again with tape wraped around them to make them strong so they won't fall apart.

Hope that helps