Re covering an Olympus Trip

[philslizzy]

I have a number of Trips, acquired in boxes of junk cameras or from boot sales. I have thought it would be nice to dress one up in some real funky leather.

This is completely reversible.

I found these purses in a souvenir shop for about £2 each. Funky and colourful!

It was easy to take the purses apart, a little snip of the stitching and a firm tug pulled the whole thing apart in a few seconds. The leather turns out to be a thick embossed paper like material.






I peeled the covering from the camera carefully. It is self adhesive and comes off cleanly. I have now stored the vinyl stuck to some silicone paper.

Next I stuck the covering gently over the 'leather' and cut round it with scissors.





The hole for the flash socket was made with a hole punch while the original covering was still stuck on the new. To get it in exactly the right position.



I used contact adhesive spread on the back of the new covering and placed it carefully into position. Use a cocktail stick to push it into corners. When the glue is completely dried, cut any excess that may have leaked under with a scalpel and roll it off with your fingers.

Voila!





I retouched a small square of covering with red acrylic paint and managed to get some on the body but its cleaned off. I filled the Olympus Trip 35 name with red paint and when dried, carefully scraped off the excess with a plastic blade.

I plan to cover the 'leather' with clear matt nail varnish to protect it.

Just for fun and it is completely reversible.

[Ramon]

Well I'll give you top marks for originality but I'm sorry to say it doesn't appeal to me.
It must be my age because I think cameras should be black.

[philslizzy]

[Lloydy]

At the camera fair on Sunday there was someone selling a bunch of cameras recovered in very flashy Union Jack, Stars & Stripes, and many other design materials, and they looked OK. Even though I suspect the covering is the vinyl covered cloth sold as tablecloths.

Today, in my pursuit of bargain cameras and lenses, I was also keeping a keen eye open for some nice leather to recover the latest Yashica FX-D Quartz that I've got. This Yashica is a nice all black version and I fancy some nice red leather to pimp it up a bit. But I found this instead....



It is real leather, with a nice snakeskin finish. It's also a very nice designer bag and my beloved has taken a liking to it, so it seems my quest continues.

[philslizzy]

I'm looking for a snakeskin myself but the pattern on that one is too big for a camera, you really need a smaller, tighter pattern.

My old mate Rolly (RIP) used to get rattlesnake skins from the US which he used to laminate onto belts and boots. He have me a head once and I used to scare the kids with it.

I wish I knew where he got them, they were nice and the real thing.

[Lloydy]

I've just slapped the bag on the scanner and printed it full size, cut a couple of bits for the front and stuck them on the camera with tape. It doesn't look bad at all, but I want to try it with the pattern the other way. Pic's tomorrow.

[iangreenhalgh1]

Nice work Phil, I like it.

If the Yashica goes wrong, I'll take it off your hands, I need a Yashica body to use with my newly acquired Yashica ML 2.8/24 and I don't care what it looks like.

[Lloydy]

[iangreenhalgh1]

Ooh, ww2 Dakota leather.... Sounds good.

[Lloydy]

http://forum.mflenses.com/yashica-fx-d-tidying-up-t57537.html

This is the FX-D I've re covered, the other one is all black.

[philslizzy]

[Lloydy]

Get a decent rotary cutter Phil, and a cutting mat, and the fraying problems will be over. I find cutting leathercloth with a craft knife, no matter how sharp, drags on the fabric, especially when trying to cut a curve- which is where I use a chisel ended craft blade and push it through in a series of tiny cuts. It doesn't drag and is way more accurate.

[Lloydy]

The mock up, cut out from a print on photo paper and stuck on with tape and Blutac.



It's very tempting, but the brown doesn't really go with the black. I think I need bright red, and obviously some endangered species.

[philslizzy]

Not too bad, a little conservative compared to my effort!

Nice to see another use for Blu-tak.

[Farside]

[philslizzy]