Jim! This is the wasted wreck of a man you were talking about - looks great!

Just one thing to add to the question about pros/cons of modeling in the Da Vinci pose: while it is best for IK and Pole Vector set up to have the arms out that can present a problem with the area around the armpit when you try to bring it down to the side. With careful skinweight painting etc. you can massage the deformation but another way of doing it is to model the arm, at least the final version pointing down at a 45 degree angle towards the ground, then building the skeleton, skinning the model and then rotating the arm up to the Da Vinci pose and setting up the IK.