Interesting replies, some are quite amusing. Great to see interest in these old camera.
Since this thread created good interest, I'll add my 2 cents hoping there will be more conversation and inter-action. Maybe some others would chime-in too.
Now, my perspective is a little different, just like everyone else I guess.
I work in Automobile industry, in that line of work, it's quite acceptable to have any automobile restored, in addition, they customize cars too, each of course to the owner's taste and liking. Most common would be customized wheels, then in more expensive adventures, it would be to customize paint, interior, drive-train and so on. It's not unusual for a restorer to lose money on the project, markets change and interest with it.
It's also accepted to have Replicas of very rare cars, say a Shelby Cobra or some Old American made super fast cars or even trucks. Obviously, the replicas or even the restored/repaints units are not worth the same as
a pristine, garage kept, low mileage unit, but they are still sought after. Hence there is market for them.
This same holds true in camera world, the old Nikon S2 or Leica M3 are almost impossible to find in black, if you find one, they command extreme prices, hard to afford for casual collectors or users, hard to afford for some serious collectors. There are plenty of replica BLACK cameras as I mentioned above, probably more than real ones! One of the reasons they are called Fake Black cameras.
Now, these Olive Drab cameras were never made by Nikon, they seem to me more in line of being customized than faked, we can't really call them replicas since underneath, they are Nikon cameras, in my opinion these are more like restored/customized examples.
Now, is it wrong to redo a chrome camera?
What if the shop is restoring something like this:
Ebay example.
http://www.ebay.com/itm/311696381102
Well if they are restoring old worn out stuff, then more power to them. I don't mind having one of the greens myself, if the price is right.
Now as for value, I agree that they are not really worth more than a nice example, just like those old customized cars don't bring profit to their restorers most of the time.
Kiu