I agree with you, I will eventually, when the time comes, add textures in 3ds max and use the bitmaps I want. I am just getting annoyed with the way I cant make an object display any other colour than black. I have tried using a shell modifier as well as normal modifier but neither make a difference despite solving the problem for others. Its definitely not a display driver problem because other objects (Some more complex) are displaying default or specified colours and the file does the same on other computers. I can't seem to come up with a solution. I think it must be to do with the object itself being inverted in some way despite the normals all pointing in the right direction (perpendicular to the surfaces)
Any other things I could try?