We discuss the strategy of building models of the lower part of the planktonic food web in a stepwise manner: starting with few plankton functional types (PFTs) and adding resolution and complexity while carrying along the insight and results gained from simpler models. A central requirement for PFT models is that they allow sustained coexistence of the PFTs. Here we discuss how this identifies a need to consider predation, parasitism and defence mechanisms together with nutrient acquisition and competition. Although the stepwise addition of complexity is assumed to be useful and feasible, a rapid increase in complexity strongly calls for alternative approaches able to model emergent system-level features without a need for detailed representation of all the underlying biological detail.