If you have to narrow it down to just one, this is a great tutorial * Modular Building Workflow - ($) a 3dmotive tutorial by Tyler Wanlass Covers planning and workflow for modular buildings using Photoshop, 3ds Max, and UDK.
skin detail is done with highres textures in zbrush yes... its in the sculpt... its part of the displacemetn... and on top a super highres noise... take a look at those tutorials here... https://texturing.xyz/pages/tutorials
Checkout Tyler Wilson's tutorial. The best tutorial on how to make a brush for painting hair imo. I still use that brush all the time to this day! :) (Bottom of the page) Here: http://www.tylersart.com/thor.html
It's a good start. I would collect as much anatomy reference as you can. Check out http://poopinmymouth.com/tutorial/tutorial.htm There are some really good character modeling tutorials there. I hope this helps.
Just to help you with the tracking, racer445 says something like that in this tutorial: http://cg.tutsplus.com/tutorials/autodesk-3ds-max/project-workflow-creating-a-next-gen-sci-fi-prop-day-1/
You could cut down on the polygons; a base mesh doesn't need to be detailed, leave the detailing for the sculpting app. I wrote a tutorial that covers this process: http://jasongordy.com/pages/tutorial/page1.html
have you seen that tutorial on 3dtotal? the Sword Master character one check it out the tutorial is a bit outdated ofc but I think it might be what you are looking for though I might be wrong
When you read the tutorials you may infact then how to connect polies together and not just stick 2 nurbs objects into each other =] Haha But yeah man, tutorials are the way to go. There are PLENTY!!
i think its coming along nicely, can't wait to see the tutorial on the eyes. I really wanna see the tutorials you have been reading, they have obviously been working for you.
As Paul says Mike, forget Nurbs. SubD is the way. This is a classic tut. It's not how I work personally, but it's a great tutorial that offers up a lot about topology etc. http://www.thehobbitguy.com/tutorials/polymodeling/