Colour!

I’ve been looking forward to this day as I’ve been interested to see how the Toplac performs. We’ve heard a lot about this replacement for the famous Brightside so, how good is it really? The colour is Squall Blue, and I’ll attempt to evaluate its application.



On opening the tin, it obviously needed stirring to mix in the solids. The first thing that strikes you is the unique odour. It’s not nearly as bad as most paints, but it’s unique. I was curious as to what the solvent is so looked up the data sheet. Oh, dear, I shouldn’t have done that. It’s almost as toxic as the day following a nuclear explosion. Well, that’s how it reads anyway. Sheesh, if this was on the label it would have stayed on the shelf! How  could something with a colour this pretty possibly be so bad for life on earth?

Anyway, I paint with the doors open at both ends of the garage and a coat takes 45 mins. Then I’m outa there! Seriously, if you paint boats for a living, then find another job because this stuff isn’t good for you.

It seems quite thin, but it doesn’t drip off the roller, it goes on without any effort and there is no spattering. Coverage is excellent and there are no spots where the primer shows through. I would say coverage is 100% which is excellent for such a light colour. Tipping off with a brush sees the brush marks completely disappearing by the time I start tipping off the next section which is about 90 seconds. It flows out very nicely indeed. Coverage was achieved with just 300ml which I thought was pretty good. Conditions were around 20 degrees with low humidity, so pretty much perfect. I was surprised then that it took 6 hours to become touch dry as this time was double that stated on the data sheet.

Twenty hours later, the Toplac is surprisingly hard for a silicon alkyd based enamel. It is obvious that alkyd paint technology has advanced over the past few years. The gloss is quite stunning and no doubt will be even better after another coat.