A while ago, before I had my youtube channel, I made a vintage prop camera that would hold my GoPro and could even turn the GoPro on. Since then I’ve gotten quite some nice reactions on it and I decided to make another one to improve it and to show how I made it.

I based my design of an existing vintage camera that I liked, the Beaulieu 2008S. After finding a side view image online I imported that image into Fusion 360 so I could trace the outlines and get the basic shape. After I had the final shape I kinda went my own way with the design and added some buttons and places for the fake leather.

Tools used

3D Printer
Sandpaper
Scalpel Knife

To give it the extra twist I designed the whole camera around my (then brand-new) GoPro Hero Session so that the camera could actually be used to film with. The mechanism to push the on-off button took some fiddling but it worked really well at the end.

After the parts were printed I filled all the voids and layer lines with universal filler so that it could be sanded smooth. This goes a lot quicker than sanding the plastic. When all the layer lines were gone I also gave it a couple of coats with filler primer to really smooth it out. After which I could paint it. For this new one I wanted the colour to be a bit lighter than black, so the fake leather would stand out more, and I went with grey. For some extra detail I tried giving the body one light coat with black spray-paint sprayed from a distance to get some dots on it. This worked out really well.

When all the paint was dried it was time to assemble it and glue all the buttons, the handle and the fake door on. Now came the scary moment for me: Weathering. I know it usually improves the look but I always find it a bit scary to start sanding a just painted part. But I went for it, sanded it and accented some details with a silver sharpie and it turned out really nice.