Turning Driftwood Into Limestone

                                       

On a recent lakefront walk, I found an interesting-looking piece of driftwood, perhaps cedar. Examining the side of the driftwood, it reminded me of an exposed limestone outcrop. I brought it home to install on my layout. The top photo shows the finished product. This photo shows the as-discovered driftwood:

I thought of making use of both long vertical surfaces of the driftwood by sawing it in two. Being fragile, that might not have ended well. Instead, I found a location entering the layout room, where both sides would be visible:

I got out the craft paints, mixing and diluting to get the desired look. It's worth noting that limestone rockfaces can be anywhere from brown to greenish-blue to grey, depending on the length of time of exposure to the elements.

Having covered all surfaces, a central Robertson pre-drilled screw held the driftwood securely to the layout!

To integrate the driftwood, er, limestone outcrop into the layout, I got out my three bags of large, medium and small sifted limestone, from local roadsides including the VIA station parking lot! Talk about modelling local!

Gluing down some matching rocks, adding in some smaller ones at the periphery and covering up that screw!

Some dollar-store modelling clay added some outcrop extensions:

The opposite end:

The top photo shows some added saplings and ground cover. The CN roadmaster comes out to take a look at the new location!