TacoBuff: thanks for your kind words. If I where going to start over sculpting I'd check out some of the dedicated figure sites, PlanetFigure, Timelines, and Historicus Forma are the ones I belong to. They have lots of how to, and the guys are always willing to help out a new person. There may be more out there. Using plastis is the exception most people use some type of puddy on a wire appendage.
The way I got started was like most guys I'd do figures for armour pieces, the way it goes first you do stock, then swap arms legs, maybe reshape, next I'd take the stock figures and comepletly redo the whole thing, overtime forgot the tanks worked soley on figures, then finally stopped using stock and made my own, using the leftover sprue trees. It goes without saying good luck with your sculpting endevors.
Rules are overrated