repairing the putty on my sash windows

[VegemiteSandwich]

Hi all, yet another question about my sash windows

We've pulled out the sashes (THAT bit was quite easy!) and, after quite a long time scraping, I've removed the broken pane of glass. I was planning to stick a new one in and finish it off with linseed oil putty.

The putty around the other panes is looking less than perfect - bumpy finish and a few (small) cracks. I WAS thinking that it would be quite nice to remove the putty from these other panes, but it was a right pain to remove that first lot and I am therefore assuming that the problems with it are merely aesthetic.

Could I just chip out the bits that are loose and fill in the gaps? Can I put some putty over the bumpy bits? Sand it back a little bit? Or is this an all-or-nothing type of thing?

Finally, given that linseed oil putty takes AGES to dry and I would rather paint the sashes before putting them back in the frames, is there something else that anyone would suggest?

Thanks for reading!

 

[foxhole]

Remove as much putty as possible, it's not for sanding, remove excess oil [ roll in newspaper]from putty before use, should be paintable after a week or so.