Wednesday, December 16, 2015

Working hurricane lantern, Mark II, using battery-operated tealights

'Tis the season, and those little battery-operated tealights are in stores. They're available (at higher prices) year 'round at Michael's, but the Christmas season brings them to more stores, and at lower prices.

I decided to replace the hurricane lantern on the Titan Quest weapons cart. I was never happy with the first version. Thought it was a little crude. The lantern was cannibalized from one of those battery-operated tealights that use a round, CR-2032 battery.

It's intended to be rustic, so I hid it in a wooden tub. From what I can see. the circuit board is necessary to make the light flicker. Otherwise, the bulb can be directly wired to the battery and it will work, but you 'd lose the on/off switch feature. So, this project retained the flickering light and the on/off switch, but disguised the entire battery casing into a period-appropriate setting.

The skeleton is 4.75" tall. The lamp itself is a bit under 1", so this design can easily be adapted for MEGOs, 1:12 scale figures, dollhouses and even 1:6 scale figures.

Tutorial below:


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