I'm a concept artist I use zbrush and MAYA, I've never made anything for a game but would like to learn:). Does anyone have any links to any tutorials that deal with adding custom weapons and armors. I know none of this will be possible until the CK is released, but I can get a head start with making the meshes.

Thanks in advance:)

There are no export tools for Skyrim yet, so you can go ahead and make the meshes. When the nif import\exprt tools are released, grab the skeleton.nif and rig your armors to it.
Weapons are easy, just need an exporter.
Then to get them in game you need CK.

What kind of maps are needed for weapons and armors? I know normal maps and texture maps are needed, is that it?

Diffuse, Normal and specular I'm guessing :]

You can actually get meshes into the game already, it's just really roundabout. http://www.gamesas.com/index.php?/topic/1284257-modding-skyrim-with-tessnip-and-nifskope/.

No rigging yet though