Painting a window frame, remove paint first?

Hi all,

I came across these forums many times in my DIY searches so I've signed up. I just bought my first home and cannot sleep at night over the excitement of fixing it all up, however I've come to realise I know nothing about renovations, so baby steps.

To get to the point -

I have two window frames that I want to modernise before drywalling the room, basically by just painting them a different colour and removing the current paint which is just falling apart. The paint on the frames look really thick and generally not very good.

Basically to make these window look new again do I need to remove the paint and then sand the frames? Any advice would be appreciated such as -

* Best way to remove the paint from the window frame?
* Best way to sand the frame (if this is something I'd need to do?)

I've attached some pictures -



and




Thanks very much for your help, looking forward to being able to contribute back to the forums one day