Keep Existing Mesh Intact When Applying Skin

Does anyone know of a way to keep the existing mesh intact when applying the skin. I’m trying to make the skins more of “additional accessories” that attach, then full replacements. I don’t want to hide the original mesh when applying the skin. I would appreciate the help, thank you.

If possible I’d also like to keep the TPV Animation intact when importing new Skeletal Meshes. Right now, the new weapon / item looks good. But when I switch to TPV, I lose the walk animation. Has anyone ran into this issue before? Thank you.

My friend downloaded the Devkit and saw this TPV issue straight away with a default weapon. So I don’t think I did anything wrong. Maybe it works better after being baked and uploaded. This should be non-issue. I would still like to figure out how to keep the existing mesh visible when applying a skin. Thank you.