Bachmann Phase V Amfleet Questions

[Michigan Railfan]

I received a Bachmann Phase V (actually should be IVB) for Christmas, and had a few questions about them.
1. The shade of blue almost seems too purple. Is Bachmann using the correct shade of blue for these Amfleets? And has anyone else noticed this?
2. The diaphragms are silver. Shouldnt they be black?
3. There are dents in each door of the car. Is this a manufacturing defect of my car, or is it a known problem?
Thanks in advance.

[mlrr]

I received a Bachmann Phase V (actually should be IVB) for Christmas, and had a few questions about them.
1. The shade of blue almost seems too purple. Is Bachmann using the correct shade of blue for these Amfleets? And has anyone else noticed this?
2. The diaphragms are silver. Shouldnt they be black?
3. There are dents in each door of the car. Is this a manufacturing defect of my car, or is it a known problem?
Thanks in advance.

1.  Not too many people other than myself and occasionally a few others, have noticed or acknowledged this openly on forums but it is recognized by Amtrak modelers out there.  The blue is not correct for this scheme and is (I believe) the exact same blue they used on their phase IV Amfleets (This is not the case on their respective prototoypes). 

Ironically, the blue they used on their initial "Acela Regional" amfleets (A production error) with the dark blue band was slightly more appropriate for this phase.

2.  Yes but all of Bachmanns Amfleets have silver diaphragms.  Only Bachmann can answer to why they decided not to make them black.  You can easily paint them with a brush yourself though.  Takes no more than two minutes to do both.

3.  I haven't seen dents in the doors on these cars.  I find that odd.  Do you have pictures?  That sounds more like an isolated defect but until I actually see what you're talking about, I can't make that call.

In all honesty, these Amfleets are completely new tooling from Bachmann's original Amfleets and (unfortunately) less accurate in dimensions and detail compared to their predecessors.  You should note however that these Amfleets are part of a different product line, seperate from "Spectrum" which is Bachmann's top notch product line with respect to accuracy and level of detail (i.e. the Acela Express and HHP to name a few related Amtrak models done by Bachmann in the past).  The "Silver Series" is a bit more generic in nature and I believe these Amfleets fall into that line.  They're great starters for newcomers.

[Michigan Railfan]

Thanks for the help. I bought some Walthers phase IVB amfleets and they look great. When the Bachmann ones are compared to the Walthers, you can tell the paint is purple. When theyre running together, however, it's not really noticeable. I guess the dents in the doors are just an isolated problem, but I don't have pics at the moment. Thanks again.