repainting wooden house sign

[what..the?]

the sign I have is 20-30 years old maybe more, i don't know what type of wood, but it looks homemade. I want to restore the sign and the moment it looks to have been carved and then painted and them the paint has all broken/weathered off.

I assume I have to take the old paint off I have handheld Dremel for that, but then I don't know if I need to prep the wood before painting, I would like to keep some of the original wood showing and paint just the lettering. So should I clean the item up with the dremel, paint the sections I want, allow to dry and varnish to weatherproof the whole thing? If so what type of paint and varnish?

Thanks in advance

[The Builder]

I'll guess you don't have a small belt sander Mrs W? That's what I would use to take the whole top surface of varnish/paint. If your Dremel has a sanding disc, then that would certainly do it............. only slower.
When you're back to bare wood, re-paint the lettering with ordinary exterior paint using an artist's brush.
Exterior and Yacht polyurethane varnishes tend to yellow with age. To keep the natural wood colour, try clear lacquer. The sort of thing they spray cars with. I think Humbrol, and possibly others, sell it in an aerosol (Halfords?).
That would protect it nicely.

[what..the?]

great thanks is there any other type of paint I could use, if I am covering varnishing it after, could I get away with artists acrylic paint?

[The Builder]

I can't see why not, if it's protected by something :o)

[what..the?]

great thanks for that :)