I first built the cube using the exact values of components (except for leds, unknown) on a breadboard. I had a problem, it would not work, and I checked all connections, several times, not a flicker from the leds.
Being a very simple design with only 4 components (apart from the leds), two of which were pretty much fixed (the IC's). I started to play about with the capacitance; resistance and I also lowered the voltage.
After a lot of trial and error, I finally came up with a working cube using the following values.
Voltage = 4.5volts.
Capacitor = 100uf.
Resistor = 91ohms.
The design of the circuit remains the same and I used 3mm leds.