Removing paint from fibrous plaster

I live in a pretty old building (circa 1920s) and am in the process of repainting etc. The ceilings are fibrous plaster. In some of the rooms the paint is peeling away from the ceiling in parts (only in some small areas) and i have deduced that the cause is the kalsomine that would have been used before the surface was painted. In addition, along the cornices etc the paint has also started to crack in places. Other than that the ceilings are OK. For the ceiling along the hallway, i scraped all the paint off. Some of it came away very easily though not all and i ended up damaging the plaster a bit. I washed the ceiling to remove the kalsomine then used a skim coat of plaster to smooth out some of the grooves i made. Removing the paint from the ceiling and cornices was laborious in the extreme. After painting, the result was OK though i should have used a better primer to seal the plaster. So this finally brings me to my question. I wish to repaint the bedroom ceilings. The rooms are much larger (16sq metres) than the short hallway. Is it better to just remove some the the flaking paint and seal with a more appropriate primer then patch the ceiling rather than remove all the paint. What can i do about cracks along the cornices? Any suggestions would be appreciated. (The more i read about kalsomine the more i despise it)

Thanks
GB


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