So, yeah, this is probably a case of "If you can't figure it out on your own, you probably shouldn't be doing it....", but:

I want to create a test SKSE plugin I can use as a template for future work. I've looked through the src and the comments contained therein and still can't figure it out.

First of all, I'm not sure how to produce a .dll (which I assume I need to do) from the example plugin files. Secondly, I'm not sure if I have to add anything to the code (besides what I want to patch) to make it work.

If the example code will run as written, I know what I want to write to what memory address (I'm changing the text of "[weaponname](FINE)" to "[weaponname](DULL)").

Anyone familiar with this stuff?

Just add your patching code to the SKSE_Load function in the example plugin project and build it. You'll need VS 2008+ for the job. That being said, you probably shouldn't need to patch the runtime to change the weapon prefix - Modifying the corresponding GameSetting in the CK ought to do the trick.