How do I make a statue?

That was a pretty good idea about the wire and clay.
I won´t add any eyes or wrinkles though as it is 1:200.

i am suscribed to some european modeling magazine and thgere was this neat article about it. first, buy some brass wire and bend the pieces into the basic body form. aka the arms legs and just put a little loop for the head. then, just wrap some sculpting clay around the wire. let that dry then add the details like the wrinkles, eyes, exc. hope that helps.

-mark

Check out a couple of the major toy stores like Toys Are Us. Sometimes they have those old injection plastic figures of animals for cheap ... you may find a usable lion in there.

The figures are larger than 1:1. I think I can get away with using some old, reshaped 1:72 figures I have lying around. The lion is going to be extremely difficult. I might even have to leave it out.

I´m thinking I´ll caste the base from gypsym and carve some of the details, then add the figures.

I guess it depends on the scale of the statue itself. Is the statue built 1:1 or as in some cases are the figures 2 or 3 times larger than true life. If so and you are building in 1:200 scale you may have to look for figures that are 1:100 or even larger scale. Scratch build the pedestal and spray your figures the solid colour that you need.
Around my city there are a number of 1:1 scale bronze statues, so if I was building I'd be looking for some bronze spray paint.
I think the lion is going to be your hardest figure to find.

You could try using model railroad N scale figures. These would be slightly bigger than 1:200th but they would likely work.
Carl

You could get some sculpting clay and try carving them out.