Everything renders as the default color; I need to create actual materials to have POV-ray render colors.
ekolis,
Yes, you have to define materials to get different colors. This is true for Pov-Ray, YafaRay, and Kerkythea in Wings3D. You edit materials in the Outliner window.
oort
Also, if you UV map your object you can "transfer" the vertex Colors to the texture image.