This is GEOmetric’s resin bust of Lon Chaney as the vampire in the movie
London After Midnight. My first Geo bust from their horror range but I was so
impressed with the quality of the casting and the overall feel of the kit, that I’m
going to add a few more to my collection.

The kit comes in 4 parts, the bust and circular base which are cast in resin and the
mounting rod and name plate which are metal. The bust and base have pre-drilled
holes to accept the metal rod so positioning the bust centrally is no problem.

There were very minor casting lines which were removed by sanding, one stubborn
line had to be filed and cleaned up with putty but no real drama’s here. Once happy
that the bust was free from lines/faults it was given a good wash in warm soapy
water and a nail brush used to get into all the awkward areas like the hair and creases
in the face. I gave the bust and base a coat of grey primer, which to my surprise didn’t
show up any further faults that I had missed, so onto the painting.

I started by giving the face a base coat of dark grey, making sure it got right into all the
creases of the face. Once dried I started drybrushing off white, this was slowly built up
with approximately 7 or 8 applications. Next the eyes were base coated with an Ivory/white
mix and the fleshy edges given a coat of pink/burgundy, a very light wash of the same
pink/burgundy was given to the eye area as well. The pupils are just plain black with a
small white dot applied with a fine brush to give them a little “life”.

I used black pastels around the eyes to darken/sink them and then dark grey pastels
to deepen the creases of the face, the pastels were then sealed with a mat sealant.
A final coat of drybrushed off white blended the pastel shades into the face.
The hair was base coated mat black and drybrushed with dark grey, light grey
and finally highlighted with off white.

The shirt and bowtie are white with grey pastels used to define the creases and add
shadows to where the jacket meets the shirt. The jacket/waist coat were given three
coats of mat black and then drybrushed with dark grey to pick up the edges and
raised creases. His top hat was base coated in the same mat black but I wanted
a more rough appearance for the upper part to kind of make it look like velvet. So I
sealed it with a mat sealant by brushing it on and dragging the brush back and forth
whilst the sealant dried. This gave a rougher finish, and when drybrushed with a lighter
grey gave me the effect that I wanted, the band on the hat was given a coat of satin
sealant. The base was sprayed with satin black auto paint, the name plate was base
coated mat black and the lettering picked out in blood red which was then sealed
with a gloss sealant.