Well, the painters guide notwithstanding, officially, based on the navy schemes, in 1942, the Yorktown wore MS-12. Under MS-12, officially, Carrier flight decks and submarine decks, though made of wood, were not deck blue.
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/measure_12.htm
The Enterprise, in 1941, wore MS-1, in which all wooden decks, on any ship were left natural wood. In 1942, the big E wore MS-11 for part of the year. Also with natural wood colored decks (see this picture of the Saratoga in MS-11:
http://www.shipcamouflage.com/measure_11.htm
Also in 1942 and throuh 1943, the Big E wore MS-21 the Navy blue scheme, which also called for deck blue on horizontal surfaces, except for flight decks and submarines.
In 1944 Big e-wore a dazzle, MS-3, and in 1945 she was back to MS-21
Similar patterns are evidenced in the Essex class.
Of course, there is controversy. The ranger, in the atlantic, had her decks stained flight deck blue to test its application. Based on this some have argues that the carriers were flight deck blue well prior to the war. We know at some point in 1941-42, the atalntic carriers followed the rangers lead. We also know in 1943, the carrier decks were all painted with light blue stain. We assume this to be true for 1944, as none of the dazzle schemes have topside detail on the carriers. And we assumed for 1945 because the BuShips had already made flight deck blue standard.
Michael Vorsai makes a definitive arguement that the flight decks were blue before, duirng and after the war, and its fairly convincing. Except that a big part of his argument rests on his intepretation of tonal qualities from black and white photos. He does not provide us with his training in photo interpretation, however. I do know for a fact that tonal interpretation is hard, even for a trained expert, and it is very easy to read what you want to see.
Its not clear answer, but it seems most likely that flight decks were flight deck blue during 1942, except for on the Saratoga, which clearly, by color photo, has a natural wood deck. The argument of color shift is ridiculous to anyone who sees the Saratoga Photo.
Of course, Vorsai uses an eyewitness to confirm that Saratoga was blue at the time of Pearl Harbor. Obviously eyewitnesses are not always reliable on every point. Memory fades.
Thus I would say make an educated guess. If you like the deck blue in 1941-42 run with it. If you like the wood, go with that. remeber as well that as wood weathers, it greys. And that carrier decks were softwood and not mahagony or teak. Just things to think about.
