i use electical wire cutters to cut the main artery. hold the cutter edge flush with the base and 'snap'...easy. then trim the 'button' with a hobby knife. yes, the base artery is thick, but not bad with wire cutters. they also make a thin bladed set of sprue cutters in the 'squadron' catalog. these would be ideal for emhar, or italieri sprues which are tight. hope this helps.

For me this job is a lot easier after I followed a great tip I got from someone on this forum some time ago. I ordered a Xuron high precision micro shear #80333 ($11.49 US) from micromark.com. It's very sharp with a fine, narrow edge that makes a flush cut. It works great on the large sprues as well as those delicate cuts around arms, weapons, etc. Well worth the investment for me. Also works great as a toe nail trimmer.

Micromark has an incredible assortment of fine tools for modelers. If your not familiar with them you should check them out.

I use cuticle cutters.

After undercoating in white primer....

I nip off all the figs with a pair of heavy duty wire cutters, then I trim off the base with a sharp craft knife, then I carefully remove every single bit of flash from the figure by running a scalpel around the figure. It takes about 1-2 minutes each and it takes a little practice but I remove all the flash (every single figure has some flash, even the cleanest Italeri fig).

Time consuming but worth it when it comes to painting....