I’ve gone two routes on the outdoor versions of the TxRx pairs.
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A small piece of 1/2" (or smaller) PVC pipe capped at both ends and a small hole drilled and sealed with a piece of Cat5 or 22/4 wire as a “flying lead”. The pipe is large enough to accommodate the full Tx or Rx board and keep it water tight.
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For the ultimate in tiny installs, I have self built some Tx Rx boards using SOIC-> Dip adapter boards and SOIC mount MAX485 chips. I mount the termination resistor and bypass cap right on the chip itself.
They come out about 1cm square and I solder on a flying lead for connections. They’re small enough that you can heat shrink the entire board and wiring into a sealed unit. I suppose you could alternatively embed it in epoxy.
I leave a generous tail and just splice the wires using gel filled “B splices” (often used in Telco). The gel keeps the splices reasonably water proof and a wrap of good electrical tape is usually all it needs. I have a few of these that live outdoors in the We(s)t Coast and they’ve done well.
As far as which approach is better - 1) is definitely cut and dried easy to see, but a little bulkier.
For your props it would probably fit in the back quite easily and if you mount it vertically you get a “doghouse” for your connections to hide in.
2) is neat and tiny, easier to hid behind a string of lights but very labour intensive to build.
In general I treat either of these units as consumables. Inevitably I do something stupid in my wiring and kill one. I just swap it out, they’re cheap and simple to wire.
There’s a picture in one my previous threads to give you and idea: Personal project for my backyard... which way to choose? - #7 by divsys