Easy in Houdini. Attached image is just using a box as a standin for scales. I would also use a Polyframe node to get a tangent attribute and use that to align the scales along the dragon's body.
Hi! Yeah, MASH was my first guess as well, but after playing around with the tool, i have not come across the correct offset solution yet. Maybe some particle expression or something? I have to scatter about couple of hudred objects or more, so yeah. Handwork is something i'd like to avoid as much as possible. Maybe even…