After repainting my first Hawkeye in a Barbie theme, I looked for some more. That first one had a missing winder and it sometimes caused the film to get jammed. Besides that, I quite enjoyed repainting it. I reversed the lens in that one for a different effect.

I realised later that I had not written anything about the camera in the previous post. So, before I begin, here is a little information. You can find lots of information on this great blog, including how to date the camera using the ‘Camerosity’ system. I did mention that these cameras are a little hard to find in good condition in the UK mainly for the reason they were manufactured in the USA. Some were also manufactured in France, but that doesn’t seem to have affected their rarity in the UK.

They are a pretty simple camera and easy to take apart and clean. The only difficult part is removing the handle as it is stiff plastic and one end is riveted.

Anyway, I managed to get 4, yes four at very cheap prices by keeping my eyes peeled. Two were regular Hawkeyes and two were flash versions. I started with the regular ones first as I was familiar with that one.

First job was taking it apart, which basically involved unscrewing any screw you can find. There are metal pins that can be pulled out to remove the shutter and bulb buttons. Be careful not to lose the small spring that activates the shutter button return.

As you can see, the lenses were in a bit of a state as were the buttons, glass, and mirror. They just needed a clean.

Then I got to priming the outer, bakelite case parts.

After a few coats of that, it was time to actually paint them, but what colour? Not pink this time, but I still decided to be bold…I remembered to wear gloves this time.

I gave them a few coats too, but I did make a couple of mistakes. Firstly, it was windy…do not spray paint in the wind as it blows the paint away durh. Secondly I left them outside to dry and didn’t look at them in another light. It turns out, if you look at them in another light you can see what might have been missed better. In the end, I managed to cover everything though.

Then it was putting it all back together and avoiding scratching it when putting the handle back on.

Almost! I managed to get them all back together and they look awesome. Just like the Barbie, these do scratch fairly easily which is very annoying. I think they would have to be powder coated to avoid any scratching at all. I kept these in a wrap anytime they were in my camera bag for testing.

Here they are in their full glory. Look at how clean the viewfinders are now.

Here they are with the original Barbie one on my workbench.

Of course, I wanted to play with them and I had a very old roll of 620 Kodak Tri-x to use. Just like Aly in the link above, I did have trouble fitting a 120 roll in the takeup compartment. So I wanted to use this to get the 620 spool. I had a couple but not enough if I wanted to sell these with a spare spool.

I wandered around Blackpool and shot away. I developed the film in Rodinal, a stand process. You should get twelve 6×6 shots, but some of mine were extremely damaged. That had nothing to do with the camera, but I was pleased to see I had put the lenses in the right way round. The film also had number bleed from the paper.

I still kind of like them though.

So, they work, are funky looking and are for sale…

Oh and if you do want one, but would like me to reverse the lens, just ask and I will do that for you before shipping.