It's that time of year again

We've got lots of wooden French-style windows, some with 6 panes in each
side and some with 8 (plus a big one in the lounge that's got 24).

Most of them need repainting. Most of them new putty. Any tips and
tricks involved in sorting them out?

I've been just completely stripping them right down (taking all the glass
out), then attacking the faces / edges with a sanding disc - but I've not
been able to do a lot with the decorative edges alongside the glass;
sometimes the years of paint is pretty thick there, and paint stripper
seems to do not very much. Will some kind of sand/grit blasting likely do
much for them without damaging the wood underneath?

Priming + painting frames both sides with the glass out seems to work
well, then putting the glass and new glazing points in, then adding new
putty.

Masking off the glass with tape a few weeks later after the putty's cured
to prime + paint that seems to take a long time, though - I was wondering
if there's any kind of masking film or something else which might speed
that step up a bit? My painting's too crap to just do it by eye and steady
hand :-) (but at least by painting the frames before the glass goes back
in, I'm only having to mask one side)

They'll all get replaced some day with modern windows, but we'd like to
keep the same style with multiple panes and those seem to cost major money!

cheers

Jules
(who *hates* painting anything)