I am convinced that you will be able to play better in a style if you start litening to it first. A good starting point (since it's not pure-bred-flamenco) is the awesome "A night in San Francisco" with Mc Laughlin, Paco De Lucia, and Al Di Meola.
You can move on to listen to Paco on his solo CDs, etc.

As for the scale you need, try out the Harmonic Minor.

And for the technique, the "golpe" is quite used in flamenco. It involves hitting the guitar's top with your right ring finger when picking a note. You also have the "rasgueado" which consists in strumming the strings with each finger as if each one was a pick, real close to each other, which makes it sound as if there was a slap back delay (you'll see what I mean when you hear one)

Good luck on your way!