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I have some Powered Play gaming LED lighting kits and my plan is to use a couple on some of my Land Raiders to light them up. I will be using 9 Volt batteries to power them, and was wondering if anyone knew of a company that makes plastic crates/boxes/ammo crates that I could use as camouflage or a battery case for the 9 Volt battery I will be using, since the Land Raider doesn't have much room inside the body to hide a battery, and I want to have it so I can replace the battery when it dies on me. I will be making my Land Raiders so all the doors open and come off, so I will be able to reach in and have this box come out, so the battery can be replaced. I figure something like a crate that the Land Raider is hauling, extra ammo, and allows me to have the battery to be replaced. A 9V battery is about 2" L X 1" W X 3/4" D for a size idea.

Otherwise I will have to make my own battery case/crate, out of plastic card.

Any ideas that you guys have would be helpful,

DK

Check out dollar stores, always some cheapo 'army man' accessories available. Also, if you're into using cardstock, check out Dave Graffam Games, he has some amazing papercraft models which I have bought ...many... of. There are a good number of sizes of 'crate' models that I use for objectives, which are scalable in size.

I would have thought that the Land Raider was the easiest tank to provide a battery compartment as it is designed with an openable front hatch Is the front compartment still too small for a 9v battery?

I think DarKKnight wants to have the interior as-is so you can see the detail.
My recommendation is to make a false panel. I've seen it done before, and it looks pretty good. Basically, move the inside-rear section of the land raider foreward slightly, then re-construct the rear area. That way you can have the exhaust area on the land raider removable to get at the battery area, sort of like a false door.
I light my rhinos by putting a "AA" battery pack in the drivers area, and not gluing the front panel on.

Call me stupid, but is a 9v battery not overkill for a few LEDs? Run it off of AAAs, and you should be able to make room in the track unit, using one of the medium sized track lengths as an access panel.

Of course, I've never actually done anything like this (although I have considered doing it to a few things) so if I'm way off, please pay no attention to the man behind the keyboard.

@SBG - thanks, I have a dollar store near me, didn't think about that. I will check out Dave Graffam Games as well.

@Flinty - The front hatch is wide enough, but I'm not wanting you to look inside and see a battery. Worst case is I do that, and it would fit no problem.

@Aeroroot - I like the idea, but my problem is I already glued in the back panel and the exhaust panel, had those glued before I did the kickstarter for Powered Played Games. Otherwise that is a good idea. I did the same for my rhinos only used magnets to hold it it. I made a tutorial of what I did, so I can convert all my rhinos to any of the variants of that tank.

@BunnyCommando - I'm sure it is overkill, but the kits they made have the 9V battery attachment, I'm sure it was the easiest way for the them to make the kits. I did get some batteries from them that about AA size, but only have two of them. Using the tracks would be a good place for a smaller battery.

Thanks you guys for the good input.

I found the following on youtube that might be of use. If normal 9V batteries are hard to fit, make your own batteries out of different sized cells
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r_Oxc4c8e_U

Thanks Flinty, I'll have to see if I have the skills to make that or not. I'm not electrically inclined, more mechanical inclined, lol.

Heh. Its almost a mechanical problem. How do you contain the right number of battery cells to add up to 9V while still providing access to change the batteries and enough wire length to fit where you need it to go

For batteries in series in the way they are fitted in the example holder, simply add up the voltage of each individual cell.

I hid a 9V battery in one of the track units and magnetized the tracks themselves. A 9V battery fits perfectly if you flip it onto its side. Can't remember if I needed to remove any plastic from inside but if you're interested PM me and I'll try to snag a few pictures for you.