I built some red flashing tripod leds using LM3909 led flashers. The LM3909 was originally a National semiconductor product, and was unavailable for some time after National discontinued the product. The LM3909 needs only a led and a capacitor and battery to flash a led, what's special about it is that the 3909 will run for a couple of years on a single d cell, 6 months on an alkaline AA battery, in my case I didn't even use an on off switch. I made up 3 in small plastic boxes velcro'd to the tripod with the LED facing down used at Astrofest a few years ago, not turned off for the whole week I was there..... You can get LM3909's on ebay for as little as $5 each.
Datasheet
here the flasher cct I used is on page 3.