here are a few ways to make easy arms. This tutorial will teach you how to loft them from four profile interpolated splines. Although making a basic arm is easy, making it look detailed and defined is yet another story for another time and tutorial. Here goes...
There are a few ways to model a basic torso. One such way is using the loft command with 4 or more splines. This tutorial will provide a quick look at a way to make a basic torso using loft, and how to split to make collars as well as texturing.