LED Tutorial for HMM Liger Zero: How to add switches and the battery pack (Part 2)

As always, here's a picture of the finished product (using a Liger Zero Panzer):

Continue after the break for the tutorial!

 
 Materials needed:

• 2 CR2032 batteries (if you have two circuits)
• 2 CR2032 battery holders (if you have two circuits)
• 2 1in. pieces of 22 AWG wire or smaller (if you have two circuits)
• 2 3mm SMD slide switches (if you have two circuits)
•  Soldering iron
• Solder
• Electrical Tape
• Helping Hands (Optional)
• Protective Eyewear
• Respirator (Optional)
• Pin Vise
• Model Nippers
• Hobby Knife

 Notes and warnings before we begin:

•  Test fit all parts and wires before painting
• Always wear at least safety googles when soldering.  A respirator too, you should have one if you're painting anyways, as the smoke given off by solder has cancer causing chemicals in it.
• You can cheap out on the soldering iron BUT get good solder.  The cheap stuff isn't very strong and harder to get a good solder with.
• This mod is best for a painted build- seam welding is mandatory and doesn't look good on an unpainted kit.
• You will be cutting plastic from the kit, please read through this tutorial first before attempting

Step 1: Picking up where we left off

 You should have left off somewhere around here with 2-4 wires hanging out depending on the number of circuits.

First you need to grab your battery packs for test fitting.  If you only have one circuit, you're going to have an easy time here while two is going to be a bit more challenging.

It seems there are two types of CR2032 battery packs.  I bought the ones that the battery slides into, instead of actually sitting in the holder.  The picture above shows two glued together.

Now the goal is to get these guys (with battery) to fit into the back end (B1+B3 parts) of the Liger. 

The bottom of pieces B1 and B3 are covered by pieces B9, C22, and I3, so you can cut a hole in B1 and B3 and place the batteries inside. Just don't cut too close to the edge so the hole doesn't show.  You'll have to strip a lot of plastic from the inside of B1 and B3 so they will have to be seam welded.

Photo: Example of the hole carved into B1 and B3

Once you have carved out the the back end of the Liger take your pin vise and drill two to four holes into the front of pieces B1 and B3 and feed the wires through/ make sure they easily fit through.

Also drill two holes into one side or both of pieces B1 and B3, you'll be feeding the positive wires through these holes and soldering them to the switch after painting.

 

Cut the plastic on E9 and E11 so you have room to feed the wires up where the switch will be exposed.

Now all the pieces are modded, so you can paint the pieces as usual.  

Once the pieces are painted, feed all the wires into the pieces.  Feed the negative and positive wires into B1 and B3, then feed the positive wires out each side of the piece.  Also feed the 1in. wires through the side holes.

Solder the negative wires to the negative lead on the battery holder and then solder the 1in. wires to the positive leads on the battery holder.

Place the batteries in their holders and fit them into the Liger's belly.

  You should have two positive wires sticking out each side now.  Solder these wires to 3mm slide switches.  Make sure the switch is off when soldering.

You want to leave enough wire so that the switch will stick out near E9 and E11.

Test the switches and then attach all the parts.  Now you're done!

If you have any questions, feel free to ask!  Thanks for reading!