Way back in the 80's, maybe real early 90's, GP mag did a tour of the Jackson factory & they showed a snakeskin guitar being sprayed. If I recall correctly, they did a base coat of black, and then overlaid a piece of mesh aluminum, using it as a stencil, and sprayed, for lack of a better term, snake colors, like a mix of earthtone & then light shots of black over the earthtone. The mesh approximated the scaling.
There wasn't any detail beyond the 2 or 3 pics, but they did the entire body with it, rather than just the front face.
Hope that helps.
