I'm working on covering dummys with fondant but having a big problem, I got a tip from a very knowledgable cc'er to first cover the dummy with piping gel/water mixture before covering in fondant and I tried that but the finished product doesn't look smooth it looks like fondant over styrafoam, I tried rolling the fondant thicker and even adding more piping gel. Please help I know I must be doing something wrong?
There are several things you can cover a dummy with but I use royal icing. Let it dry completely and then sand it with a super-fine sanding paper. The royal icing fills in the holes of the styrofoam really nice and then just lightly smooth it (after giving it time to dry) with the sand paper.
It's not an easy task but keep trying and you'll master it eventually! 
How about if you used mjs4492's idea of covering it with royal first? I thought the idea of sanding it sounded great, but if it's more work than you want to do, you could use the royal to adhere the fondant and it would also smooth out the styrofoam underneath for you.
I used dummies for the Autumn Design cake in my photos, but I used crusting buttercream to cover them. I loved it for that purpose. It could have been even smoother, but it was my first time using the stuff and I only had one evening to do the cake. I would definitely recommend it to others though. That stuff lasted for months until I couldn't look at it any more and scraped it all off.
I've taken many classes in which I've had to cover dummies.
I sand the upper edge of the dummy with sanding paper, an emery board/nail file, or I roll the edge down with a wooden roller or pin. This prevents the edge from tearing the fondant. If there are any large defects in the dummy, I fill those in with some softened and moistened white fondant or royal icing. I let that dry completely and sand it a bit if it dries rough.
I mist the dummy with water and apply the fondant. I roll the fondant about as thick as I would for a real cake--1/6 to 1/4 th inch thick.
I don't like to use piping gel because it's very sticky and if it gets on the fondant it doesn't come off. With water, I can roll damp bits in with more fondant and a bit of PS and it's good as new.
HTH
Rae
There are several things you can cover a dummy with but I use royal icing. Let it dry completely and then sand it with a super-fine sanding paper. The royal icing fills in the holes of the styrofoam really nice and then just lightly smooth it (after giving it time to dry) with the sand paper.
It's not an easy task but keep trying and you'll master it eventually!
Can you reuse the dummys after using the royal icing on them?
Yes.
When your through with the dummy, soak in warm water and the royal icing begins to soften. It will come off with little effort using a sponge, paper towels, kitchen towel, etc. You can sand off any bigger pieces with the fine-gauge sanding paper.
Obviously, you have to let them really dry before using again.
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