The split Hopkinson pressure bar has been used to study the impact behaviour of a selection of single and multi-layer paint systems in the form of films of thickness 0.04 mm. Stress-strain curves are presented for systems comprising three coatings, coating A, coating B and coating C, in compression for strain rates of the order 5×103 s−1. A comparison is made between the high strain-rate behaviour and that seen at quasi-static strain rates. All tests were carried out at 23 °C. The coatings studied are shown to be strain-rate sensitive, exhibiting almost a two-fold increase in flow/yield stress between the two strain-rate regimes. At low strain rates, all the coatings deformed uniformly with no sign of fracture. At high strain rates, both coating A and coating C underwent catastrophic failure which is indicative of their susceptibility to chipping. However, this was not the case with coating B which shows no signs of fracture at high strain rates for strains up to 45%. However, a combination of coating A and coating B in alternate layers led to catastrophic fracture of the resulting two-coat multi-layer system at high strain rates.