I can see some merit in having traditional colors. It provides a continuity to the structure of the game. Sometimes the color of a unit will be the characteristic that is most easily recognized and making normally green orcs that blue might make them look too similar to another unit which could make the already complex combat system even more complex and as a result it could take longer to finish.

One of my friends who painted figurines for a gaming store told me the number one goal should be making it blatantly obvious what that figurine is supposed to be. Sure they are fantasy characters and sometimes nontraditional color schemes can look amazing but when it comes to playing a fantasy game a dragon of a different color means that he has different abilities. You don't want to have to remember in the middle of a game that my gold dragon is actually painted silver.

If you just plan to put it on your shelf paint it whatever color you like but if you want to use it in the game I think you should use the proper colors for ease of recognition and to help speed up combat decisions.

There are a few of us miniature enthusiasts here. Here's one of mine:



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That looks awesome and a really good start too. Here are a couple of mine;