And still more ? on those cursed late Fokkers

[melsharkskin]

Thanking you all for the help so far, I shall reveal more of my virginal WW I ignorance with still more questions:

On the late Fokkers that were delivered in lozenge fabric, including the D.VI, D.VII, and E.V/D.VIII, what is the best way to represent the cockpit interior as it could be seen from the inside out? I know this is doubtless an old, oft debated question on this site, may require an answer that requires more space than is available here, so if anyone has a good reference link? I think what I'm asking is, if I look into the cockpit of these machines, do they all show me the faded backside of the lozenge fabric, unlike, say, an Albatros, where I would see wood?

Further, on those Fokkers with the large triangular plywood structural pieces on either side of the interior, mounted beginning at the firewall and tapering down going aft -- such as appears on the D.VI, Dr. I and D.VIII, is this big piece painted, varnished or left bare plywood (I find the latter quite doubtful)? It does show quite clearly with a peek inside the cockpit, and is often inexplicably left off models (there's that forbidden word again) and I've become quite proficient at making them, scoring them own the middle with a bead-type burnisher or dull pencil, giving a crisp obtuse bend to it, as the proper outside contour should indicate. Here, all I'm interested in is how it was coated.

On another subject altogether, were Fokker belt buckles, or German harness hardware in general, made of steel, brass, bronze or some other material? This metal is quite visible, so using the proper color is not nitpicking too much I don't believe.

Were the rib tapes on the Fokker D.VI cut from lozenge fabric, as Roden would have you believe, or is this a bit of cheating on the part of this company, requiring one to cut all the rib tapes from a couple of solid squares of lozenge material? If this is wrong, what colors should the tapes be?

Finally, I'm still in the dark about the color used on the structural tubing, and whether it matches the struts, or even some of the struts. Everyone has a different answer, and after I had arrived at FS 16440 (US Gloss Gull Gray), I'm suddenly showered with suggestions ranging from Fokker Olive to metallic olive to...well, one might go insane. I had always thought that the tubing color was similar to its British contemporary counterpart, known as Battleship Gray and available in a very nice acrylic from MisterKit (BC-01).

As always, I am deferring to your collective wisdom, for which I have tremendous respect.
TOM

[Dan_San_Abbott]

Melsharkskin:
What you might try, is to copy the lozenge decal in mirror image on decal paper, and set the decal on the inside of the fuselage. The inside of the printed fabic was the lozenge colors went through the fabric at about 1/3 value.
Fokker Flugzeugwerke used a light grey on al tubulor items, fuselage, ailerons, struts,etc.
Blue skies,
Dan-San