Roadblock to crosbones skintone

^ Agreed , your time and effort will pay off in the end , putting on each scale one by one is a great way to make good dragon scales. You can also try putting a net or something like that on the un harden clay to make a scale like pattern.

There are several approaches to making scales in clay that I can think of:

The first, and the hardest and most time consuming, is to sculpt each scale individually, and attach them, one by one, to the figure. It looks the most realistic, but you have to have a LOT of time and patience. To speed things up, you can make a combination cookie cutter/texture stamp to make a bunch of scales quickly. Note that you could also just cut scales out of another material, like foam or sheet plastic, and forego clay here.

The second method, is to sculpt the details into the surface of the clay by hand. Basically, you'd have a "skin" of thin clay on the figure, and "draw" the scales into it. A simple diamond crosshatch pattern is an easy way to start out if you're not up to something more intricate.

The third, which is probably quickest and easiest, is to make a scale texture stamp and apply that to the clay. First, you find an object that already has scales on it (another toy for example), take a small piece of clay, and press it onto the figure to make an impression of the scale texture. Next, depending on what type of clay you're using, you let it dry or bake it, and, when that's finished, it's your texture stamp. Now, you use that texture stamp to imprint the scale texture onto the clay on your figure - instant scales!

As far as clay and tool types go, that's largely a matter of preference - different modeling compounds each have their own merits/disadvantage and people use all sorts of things for sculpting tools (my preference is sewing needles.)

yeah. I agree. never ever use gloss paint on skin.

Use acrylic flat flesh. have matte brown, white, and a touch of a little red and yellow on the side. slowly mix them in until you've achieved your desired flesh tone.

thanx dude, I thought it might not work, thanx for the tip, I'll go flat then =)

I'd wait dude, gloss will make the skin look wet but not just like sweaty wet, full on I just got caught in a tidal wave wet.