Does anyone know what finish I should put on my 1:350 USS Yorktown, i.e. flat, semi-glass, satin or gloss? I was thinking maybe flat or satin.

I disagree. That is one of the Essex class. I would go with first a flat tan as the deck was made of wood. The deck was then stained with a blue color. This was not paint. I painted mine tan then oversprayed with my deck blue. As wear and tear from landings and take-off occured, the stain would wear in areas (particularly the rear) Make it subtle, and add some black weathering to simulate the screeching tire effect. As to the rest of the ship, the semi-gloss would probably look OK. As you live in England, I would recommend you picking up the White ensign paints . They are very accurate.

What exact colour did you use for the deck?

I mixed mine. It's a fairly dark blue color though. White ensign colors has it. They call it BlueFlight Deck stain . Look them up using the search mode )as I'm not sure how they run the words together at the www.com link), launch their catalog and then you can narrow the search with their search engine, it's in the WW2 US navy section of paints. the price for a tin is 1.19 pounds (sorry I don't have that cute "L" ya'll use). Their colors are difficult for me to get here stateside or I would have used it.

Thanks for the help Steve.