Couldn't you use tinted plastic to get the color you want?
LEDs are nice, especially for flashlights. More power goes to providing light than heat, last longer, and mechanically sound. I don't know how many times I dropped a regular light and broke the filament.
Recently, I picked up a bunch of 5mm white LEDs to play with. I then made a switching power supply (converts 12vDC to ~60v DC) and ran 5 strings of 16 series-connected LEDs with a 25mA constant current circuit for each string. Got the switcher to be right at 83% efficient, which wasn't too bad considering. Makes a neat bench light for the track pit.
