Here is a great SBS on building a Gundam. There is a ton of relavent information in it for all of us.

I'd like you to read it and tell us what struck you as very relavent to new modelers.

FichtenFoo How To

Research, reasearch, RESEARCH. I know he mentioned it because of being sick of answering a simple question for the 100th time, but there is more. Research is also the only way you will get the model to be the way you wan't it. Im thinking armour or military figures right now, so I'll go by what I know. You have to look at camouflage and uniform patterns, how gear is usually arranged, and where certain things are. A soldier for example may wear a standard vest, but the pockets come as seperate peices. Maybe you don't care about where the pockets are supposed to go, maybe you do. Research is the only way to get it the way YOU want it to be.

Nice interesting link.
Mike did an excellent job explaining many things.
Nice simple tutorials.