Recently I was very pleased to find a video of a talk by Adam Savage (of "Mythbusters" fame) on the topic of obesssion; he discusses his model-building and sculpting experiences extensively, including projects on a dodo bird skeleton and an extremely accurate replica of the Maltese Falcon movie prop.
Those of you with some scratchbuilding experience may be exceptionally interested:
http://fora.tv/2008/12/12/MythBusters_Co-Host_Adam_Savage_on_Obsession