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....