I have used satin paint on my last two planes up to the clear.  It seems to go on easier and shows flaws under light better.  When I got to the point of doing the clear on the last one it dawned on me that it also looked better and seemed to present better in the air (at least on video).  We have a lot of military type models that have high gloss finishes.  Ever see that on a active duty real one? They don't want the reflection giving them away.

We regularly fly our electrics before finishing them.  Last fall one of the guys who consistently gets accused (falsely I might add) of having flats in his loops flew his new creation.  I could see no flats.  After the automotive see your reflection clear coat, the flats appeared to be back.  It was the shine off of the wing.

Now I can understand why an IC would want gloss to keep the slime from shining it up but electric?   I know that the judges would swear up and down that just because the shiny ones got the highest points that it was not the shine and we would all nod up and down while our inner voice shouted "BullSh**"

I am sure there is a good practical reason (other than sealing the decals or fuel proofing both of which can be done using satin clear) to add shine.  I just don't know what it is.

Just for historical reference, my father used to really get on my  case for always asking "WHY?"   The fact that I still fly  toy airplanes is proof that I never grew up!

Ken 

I think that you'll still score more appearance points with shine than without -- but that's just something you'll have to try.

I painted my gypsy flat.  Points be damned.  The only way to change it is to let the judges know war planes should be flat, not shiny, and they should take a hit for being shiny.  And that just because it's shiny doesn't mean squat!

unless they think the guys with flat jobs "cheat" because they don't (and can't) wet sand/buff the clear, so they take their frustrations out on them by giving them lower scores, which is crap. it's a property of the material.