This may sound like a silly question, but what are these rib tapes everyone seems to go to such great lengths to paint in?
It may just be me, but It's not something that seems to be very visible on photo's of the real aeroplanes, either in original vintage photo's or of restored aircraft.

Thanks

The FAA has a really nice pdf on aircraft fabric covering:

https://www.faa.gov/regulations_policies/handbooks_manuals/aircraft/amt_airframe_handbook/media/ama_Ch03.pdf

Hope this helps, as this should give some explanation of what rib tapea are used for, and how they are applied.

It depends on the picture. Some are quite visible. German tapes on Lozenge fabric could be quite visible, especially the light blue or salmon coloured Albatros tapes.

Thanks. So they act as a reinforcing join over the ribs?

They keep the fabric from ballooning up in the airflow over the wings.

Also they keep the fabric shredding from traveling more than the space between the ribs if there is damage in flight.

Hi Stephen

You can read the official modern-day explanation HERE - about 2/3rds of the way down the page.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks.
I can see why they're so important now. Not sure I'll be trying them on 1/72, but I am giving some thought to to getting a couple of Eduards budget 1/48 kits to try some more advanced techniques.