Hello. Thanks
I use quite a few different tools but the clone tool is was one of the main ones. But PS 7.0 now has a healing brush that is sort of a more enhanced clone style tool. It duplicates texture, lighting and shading much better than the clone stamp tool. Its an amazing tool. I can't say more about the aoftware, I absolutely love iut and have so much more to learn with it.
The actual original photo looks much better scanned it is in not so bad shape, have seen alot worse. I did alot of retouching with the picture at around 300% zoom to make sure I duplicated pixels correctly.
It did take me quite long to complete but I am still learning as well, this was my first picture of this type, normally have just cleaned up dust on photos.
How do you like Paint Shop Pro 8? I used a much older version around 6 years ago to make animated gifs so have no idea what your version may hold.