Help with converting an XNALara model to Skyrim follower

[dedication]

Hello! I've been lurking on this site for a little while now, enjoying the fun mods here - but now I'm trying to do something a little more hands-on, and would like to ask for advice

My current goal is to convert the XNALara model found here into a follower NPC in Skyrim. As much as possible, I would like the appearance of the character in-game to match this model, as long as it works with existing Skyrim animations. From my limited knowledge of how Skyrim works, I believe this means I will need to create a custom race for this character. (note: this is for personal use, I'm not looking to redistribute this model without the author's permission!)

I think I have done some of the preliminary legwork already, trying to piece together the process from various other tutorials and threads on similar subjects. So far, I have used NifSkope to prepare my CBBE femalebody_1.nif for import into Blender, then imported it into a Blender project. I saved this project, then started up a later version of Blender (2.62) and appended the CBBE model to a new project. Then, I imported the XNALara model and resized + posed the model to match the CBBE model, to the best of my ability. See screenshot:

 

Now, my impression is that the next step is to copy the animation weights from the Skyrim model to my XNALara model. I've downloaded a plugin that I think does what I want: http://blog.machinimatrix.org/bone-weight-copy-in-blender-2-52-6/

However, I haven't done this because I'm feeling directionless at this point. For example, I know that character models in Skyrim are separated into head, body, hands, and feet, but the model I'm trying to convert is not. I don't know if I'm supposed to do this process all at once and somehow separate things later, or if I should do it one part at a time, etc. I'm not even sure how I would separate the pieces of the XNALara model to do so, either. And I haven't even begun to think about how to get the meshes imported as a custom race into Skyrim, though I think there are tutorials for this that don't seem very difficult.

So, I'm stuck at this point. I'd really like to get this model in my Skyrim game, but I am a complete noob when it comes to Skyrim modding and when it comes to 3D modeling. Every tutorial or discussion I can find about this assumes familiarity with one or the other, and most of these resources don't address the exact thing I'm trying to do (using Blender, at least - I'd rather not pay for 3DSMax/other modeling software).

Is there anyone in the know who would be willing to guide me through the rest of this process, assuming nothing but computer literacy? I'm enthusiastic about learning how to do this, but I'm having a hard time on my own!

[RomeoZero]

I could help out but I use 3dmx. Can provide some overall info & suggestions,msg me if you need help.