Adding LEDs to Be'lakor's lava base

Introduction

My first ever encounter with LEDs in a miniature. It took some basic research to find out what I need. A primer by a friend who lent me his soldering iron reawakened some memories from physics class about circuits and thus I skipped watching youtube tutorials. A quick search in the local-ish Warhammer community revealed a couple guys who did this before, and were also kind enough to provide some advice. Finally, I asked around where to buy supplies, and in the end I found a local store downtown with all the things I need.

Preparation

I prepared some stuff before painting the base, namely I cut out the middle of the plastic disc so that I can reach the insides.

I also hacked into the scenic base itself, cutting it in 3 places where the lava flows were more prominent. Glue the two pieces together, and it's off to get painted.

First go

I bought several LEDs, batteries, switches etc. They worked! I dutifully tested them all, and learnt how polarities are marked.

I added milliput mountings to the inside, as it's quite rough and I couldn't imagine how else to fix things down.

I glued in the switch using superglue, and the battery using 2-sided tape, then started fitting in the LEDs.

Soldering like this was quite difficult, I did it in several tries. I also found out that any contact between +/- wires breaks the whole circuit.

I fixed the LEDs using ductape, as I did not want to ruin them in any way using superglue.

Looking good!

Unfortunately, after I added the third LED, everything stopped working. There was no way to find out what went wrong without ripping everything out, so that is exactly what I did.

Second go

I cut away all the wires and rebuilt the circuit from scratch. I found out in the process that the switch was the issue, so I threw it out and got a new one from the goody bag. 

This time, I only soldered the wires to the LEDs.

The parallel joins were only twisted together.

Testing, to make sure the polarities are OK. (They weren't at first.)

Cover every join in ductape, first off to secure them in place, second to prevent any unwanted contact.

Put everything inside, and secure everything with ductape. Literally nothing is glued, so I can take it out for inspection/repairs at any time. I also covered the bottom in ductape, so stuff won't just fall out. The only thing readily accessible is the switch.

Great success!

I don't know how it will look once the miniature is mounted, or how much it will be visible at all on the gaming table. But I'm happy with it, and I might do more LED-work in the future.