Scaling up

After several weeks of on-and-off on the Sentinel boot texture, I've decided to model out the scales on the instep and heel. No matter how I mess with the texture, I can't seem to get it right. The best I've come up with is something that could be passable for phalanges if I tapered them. Just not scales.

Not scaly enough

Fortunately, all is not for naught. By attempting to create the scales in texture, I've aligned them with respect to the model. Making the scales is now a matter of tracing the texture with a spline. I know exactly where I want them.

It's not a bad thing, come to think of it. The boots don't have a lot of geometry to them, so any texture details will, uhm, fall flat fairly easily. Modeling the scales will give me a bit more variation when the boots are viewed at an angle.