Ditto what Dave said. I used to use brake fluid, but found 91% alcohol works fine. I made a "bathtub" using a piece of PVC pipe with a PVC cap cemented in one end and long enough so the entire model shell can fit down inside. It might take 3-4 bottles of alcohol to fill the tub. Just put the model in and leave it alone for 1-2 hours, then use an old toothbrush to start removing paint. Once the old paint surface is broken it seems to start working faster. Put it back in the tub for another 1-2 hours and repeat until all the paint is gone.
If you have an air compressor, Badger Model Flex paint can be sprayed straight from the bottle, just don't use paint that's been opened for more than a year. I recently painted a Weaver Pullman-Bradley coach with Model Flex and it came out great (photos in the 3RS sub-forum). It's got a satin/glossy finish and I put the decals (Champ) on it without having to spray a glosscoat first. But if the paint is flat then you need to spray glosscoat before applying decals. Once the decals are on, spray another coat of gloss and when dry spray a coat of flat. Spraying the glosscoat on after the decals helps hide the edges of the decals.
Take your time on stripping, painting, and decaling and you should end up with a nice model.
