Questions concerning a modular pawn

[Derp]

From what I understand a modular pawn is basically a pawn made out of several skeletal mesh components swapped out during run-time.

Now, would each mesh be skinned to a complete rig, as in a single "hand" is skinned to a rig that contains bones for things such as feet, a torso, head etc.?
If the above is true, just how do you animate a pawn like that? I can't imagine animating a single arm and then moving on to the torso, having to visualize the animation separately? .

[Derp]

Well, I've been thinking about the above situation, here's my current hypothesis;

Each (swap-able) body part would be skinned separately to the full rig, as in a single hand is skinned to a rig that contains bones for things such as feet, a torso, a head etc. The parts would be imported into UDK as separately skeletal meshes.

Now as for the animation concern, I would have a version of my previously broken down character but this time, it would be a complete character. I would animate this character and export it into UDK. The (complete)character's animations would be shared through all the broken (modular)meshes as they share the same rig and animset.

Am I off or would this be a valid way as to how to setup/use modular pawns?