Sorry guys. After trying array and curve modifier method to create scales, and after trying to draw the image texture in sculpting (both of which crashes my Blender), I am trying UV editing with the image of scales I cropped from Google.
The issue: there are visible cuts in the model, as the image is not large enough to encompass the the entire unwrapped skin.
Question: How would you go about this? Would you know how to make an array of the same image?