This paper discusses the modeling activity of the NATO-STO Research Task Group AVT-349. The aim of this group is to improve the understanding and modeling of boundary layers in the complex flow around water vehicles. As such, the focus is on incompressible, high-Reynolds-number flows that can be subject to non-equilibrium conditions such as strong pressure gradients, three-dimensionality, and surface roughness and heterogeneity. The Task Group has identified a reduced number of simpler problems in which the above conditions can be studied separately and in controlled environments. These include two-dimensional rough-wall boundary layers under both zero and non-zero pressure gradients, two-dimensional smooth-wall boundary layers subject to pressure gradients, and boundary layers around smooth bodies of revolution and three-dimensional obstacles. An experimental and computational data set is being assembled for further analysis and insight into the flow mechanisms involved, as well as the shortcomings of state-of-the-art models. This paper gives an outlook of the modeling effort within the Task Group, as well its different objectives. These include predicting the effect of roughness in equilibrium conditions; assessing the applicability and/or extension of equilibrium models and predictions to non-equilibrium conditions, in particular when outer-layer similarity is lost; the development of near-wall models based on a reduced-order resolvent framework; and the use of machine-aided methods in closure models.