Going thou lots of photos I can see images that shows faint lines but the image is either to grainy or just out of focus. These seem consistent with the presents of a rib tape since the rib cap strip is only 6mm wide and what I'm seeing is about 20mm wide.
Here are some photos that are a little clearer that shows the rib tape.
Photo no. 8
(All photos here are courtesy of Terry Phillips and Peter Grosz, thanks for your help…)
This is the right-side top wing crossfield of 404/17 that you can see the rib tape on the left-side of the cross and in the center were paint has chipped away the edge of the tape and one more right of the crossfield. This can also be seen in the sample that Lagdon had posted before of 425/17 top crossfeild held at AWM.
Photo no.9
Here is the top left side crossfield of 404/17 with the rib tape shown on the right side of the cross.
Photo no.10
This is the lower wing of 425/17 showing the rib tape on the top surface. This photo does blur the edges of the tape zooming in on it.
Photo no.11
This is the front view of the lower wing of 425/17. The rib tape can be seen around the leading edge. Since the leading edge had plywood sheeting wrapped around the leading edge this is not the cap strip on the ribs. Also notice the width of the tape, approximately 20mm wide.
Photo no.12
This shows the rib tape on the lower wing of an unknown Dr.I. This is probably the clearest one I have that you can actually see the edge of the rib tape.
Lloyd...