When you think Orpington you think buff, with Rocks you think barred, with Hamburgs you think spangled and so on with the most recognized variety associated with a breed. With bantam Ameraucanas wheaten was/is probably the most recognized variety because it was the first one, but with LF Ameraucanas my guess is that blacks are the "standard". Since whites and lavenders are recessive and based on the same e-locus gene as blacks we have a fantastic advantage to be able to out-cross to the best blacks and produce whites and lavenders with just as good type...within a short period of time and while producing very few culls.
I used bantam lavender chickens and LF black Ameraucanas to develop LF lavenders, so it took time to get the size up to where it should be on LF lavenders. The good news is if size is still an issue an out-cross to an extra large black is an easy fix. Feather quality a problem? Use a black with great feathers. My biggest setback with the LF lavenders has been feathers on their shanks. You can breed two birds of different strains together with no feathers on their shanks and end up with this problem. I've seen it happen with other matings also over the years. Each chick is inspected under a large lighted magnifying glass and any chick with feathers on their shanks goes into the "reject" brooder. This is a big reason I haven't been able to fill some orders for LF lavender chicks the past couple years. The problem isn't as bad this year, but still a problem.
I'm rotating 4 cocks over my LF lavender hens and here are three waiting for their turn.