Is it better (or more realistic) to finish an aircraft in completely matte finish like this:
Or is a semi gloss/satin finish better?
Or is a semi gloss/satin finish better?
It’s really a matter of personal preference. I like completely matte
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It depends upon the basic paint scheme of the original as well. Late war USN aircraft were finished in Gloss Sea Blue. In Korea and Vietnam, the USN also used gloss paints on their aircraft. So in those cases I like to use semi gloss or satin finish to show that. Satin if the aircraft is particularly well used. But for most WWII, and for current aircraft, Flat or Satin finish in some cases is best. Then of course you have your aircraft demonstration teams, where a high gloss finish is preferable.
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@Biggles50 As has already been said, it depends both on subject and personal taste. I for one do generally prefer a “slight sheen”, it makes the model stand out a bit and I find it looks less “flat” (kind of logical but by that I don’t mean flat in the paint-sheen kind of sense 
). On the other hand, I want a P-40 from North Africa to be really dead flat, I don’t think it would look right to me otherwise.
Magnus
I usually go by the first number of the Federal Standard (FS) paint code.
The first digit of the FS code lets you know the level of sheen for the paint. If the first digit is a 1, it’s a glossy finish, a 2 is satin or semi-gloss, and if it’s a 3 it’s matte.
FS16440 was used on early F-14s and had a glossy finish for example. Later, FS36375 was used and they had a matte finish.
It would certainly be a gloss for a factory-fresh condition, but if it was sitting on deck, in salt and sun, in the Pacific for weeks, wouldn’t that dull it somewhat? It would be like dropping a model tank, without any weathering, into a combat diorama.
Like everyone here has already indicated, pick the finish, matte, satin, or gloss based on what was used on the actual aircraft. However, I always adjust the finish based on scale. To my eye, smaller scales like 1/72nd and even 1/48th tend to look toy like with a super glossy finish. Therefore, the smaller the scale, the more I matte the finish. As an example, I built a 1/48th F-106, but I muted the glossy finish to between a matte and satin finish, which looks more realistic.
That depends on:
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what are you trying to show: a new airplane, fresh from the factory, or one that has been on duty for a couple of years.
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the period: during war and the then used paints, fading was quite significant, but look at modern day planes like a tigre helicopter that is barely leaving the hangar: looks like new after 10 years of service. I remember our Gepard tanks back in the 802’s: they were shiny as green gold. I guess those currently in Ukraine frontline duty look significantly different.
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Where are the plaes based: in sunny Florida, or in Sweden?
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and very important: who owns the plane. In some countries the whole crew would be in trouble when letting a plane deteriorate to the level one sometimes sees on US planes.
and most of all, look at pictures of the real thing and judge case by case. You need to build a simple narrative aroudn your plane and weather it accordingly.
“It would certainly be a gloss for a factory-fresh condition, but if it was sitting on deck, in salt and sun, in the Pacific for weeks, wouldn’t that dull it somewhat? It would be like dropping a model tank, without any weathering, into a combat diorama.”
I thought that would have said it all - early WWll ( Pearl Harbor until Midway - the plane’s markings display that), South-West Pacific Theatre, situated on a carrier deck…
Very good replies here. It really does come down to doing a study of a particular aircraft, location, and period. In the case of a Wildcat in the early war period, it might make a difference whether this was a carrier or land-based, and if you want to go fresh replacement aircraft, one that’s been out there awhile, and even in certain cases, if it was scrounged from several un-serviceable aircraft cobbled together. In the case of the “Cactus Airforce” on the 'Canal, there are many documented aircraft that were a good example of this. So if you wanted to model a land-based Wildcat, such as this, it would be heavily weathered and sun faded. Even on a carrier, the early war Wildcats would fade quite rapidly, due to sun and salt water exposure. Those early war paint colors were notoriously un-stable in that harsh environment.