Renaming recommendations

Very tempted by a Hornby County (yes, it's from the Railroad range but Hattons have it for £48, which is a steal), but I'd be wanting to change the number / name from 1006 'County of Cornwall'.

Being totally cack-handed, I think I'm better leaving it to the professionals so I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations for firms and shops that would rename and renumber it for me, plus an estimate of how much I can expect to pay.

Apart from possibly doing it with the yet-to-be-bought-County, I've never changed the identity of any of my models so I'd be interested to know if most of you tend to stick with the identity of the model you buy or always modify it and, if so, why - to get an example that would have pulled that express on that particular route at that particular era on your layout or just because another name has a certain ring to it? I favour the latter approach myself but we'll see what the rest of you have to say.

 

A guy called Gary Lee has done some of my locos , his web site is www.billywindsock.co.uk

 

Not to hijack too much, but does anyone have experience with Fox Transfers (http://www.fox-transfers.co.uk) train nameplates and such? I have a number of OO Gauge locomotives that i would like to add headboards too, but don't know what the quality of their products are like, and don't want to spend a lot of money with overseas shipping factored in and not knowing. Specifically, i have a Merchant Navy that i want to add Golden Arrow regalia to, and they sell complete sets including headboards, arrows and flags.

 

Never tried the GA set, but have had a couple of their headboards and found them to be pretty good.

 

I would recommend the HMRS range of transfers, particularly the Methfix version rather than the rub on Presfix type.http://www.hmrs.org.uk/index.php

If you're renaming a GW loco with buffer plank numbers, methfix transfers can be cut out and placed and moved around individually before fixing much more easily than rub on type and do not have the carrier film of a water slide type. http://www.hmrs.org.uk/transfers/transferdetails.php?transferid=1010 for the GW loco transfers. They're also available through many of the usual on line outlets, and the above site gives a fairly good amount of info on which transfers go with which era.