Medieval Madness troll led modification

Been busy restoring a Medieval Madness the last weeks, it's almost ready.
I'm not crazy about modifications, but wanted to install leds in the eyes of the trolls.
This mod is developed and documented at iobium.com (through their store you can also buy it assembled).

But as I'm more a diy person and the parts only cost a few euros, I decided to do this myself. After all, the kit is very simple: 2 leds, a diode, resistor and some wires (for each troll head), how hard can it be ?

2 days ago I started. Disassembled the trolls, removed the switch and the troll heads. Drilled holes in the eyes.
Soldered 2 leds together like the instructions tell me to do. Put shrinktube around it. Then tried to install it.. and got really frustrated !

It's very difficult to do (maybe the wire I used was a bit too inflexible). You hardly have any space to work, the backside of the trolls face is closed, only at the bottom there's a small hole where the metal of the switch blade sticks through.
Succeeded into putting one led in, tried to get the next in position, first came out again.. repeat repeat repeat and then they decide to break. Aaaaargh.
Out of frustration I quit.


Continued yesterday evening. Can't leave the trolls with holes for eyes, I started it and need to finish this mod.

Took a hobby knife and just cut the backside of the troll open. Put one led in, held it in place with superglue. Waited a few minutes for the glue to cure, got the next led in, glued it also in place. Glued the cut open backside also together.
Victory !

Motivated by the relatively easy installation I started with the second troll head. The frustration of the evening before quickly came back however :-(

Tried to put in one led. It broke. Bending thin metal legs of leds in a 90 degrees angle is not a good idea :(
Soldered a new led on (luckily I have enough leds laying around).
Tested it, it didn't work. Either it was already broken (or broke because of the heat from soldering), or I accidentaly reversed it.
Unsoldered it, put in a new led. (each time soldering a new piece of wire to one of the legs too). Put it in the troll head.. and one leg broke again.
Soldered a new led on. Tested it. Put it in. Success. Glued in place. Let it dry.
Tried to get the second led in place. It broke. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAArgh !

Pushed hard to get the glued led back out of the head. Soldered a new led and wire to the first. Tested it. Decided to cut the backside of the head open even more.
Finally I was able to put both leds in place and glue everything.
Called it a night.


Tonight I'll continue assembly. Have to solder a resistor and diode and connecting it all to the coil; Shouldn't be too hard to do. Let's hope I don't encounter any surprises.

Anyway, for those interested in this modification: if you don't have many patience or fine motoric skills: just buy the assembled kit !
Sure the parts themselves are cheap if you want to make it yourself, but don't forget to add the price for two hours of your life fiddling in frustration !

And to those persons that like to sell mods like, adding leds into the Medieval Madness dragon, or into the eyes of the martians on Attack from Mars: respect !
You won't see me doing this type of mod, unless when I can just cut something open from behind :-)

Edit: finally finished ! it works great :)