Hermann Graf was the first Jagdwaffe pilot to be credited with 200 victories; these were all on the Eastern Front, scored over August 4, 1941 and September 16, 1942. Following this, he was taken off operations and put in command of the Luftwaffe fighter training unit in southern France. He was then put in charge of a special unit - Jagdgruppe 50 (J.Gr. 50) -tasked with stopping the Mosquito raids.
Graf flew two Fw-190s in this role: an A-4 and an A-5. The A-5 was originally a standard "light fighter" without outer cannons. Graf had the airplane modified to Fw-190A-5/U7 using an Umrüst-Bausätze kit to install compressors and provide increased high-altitude performance; this was easily identified by the compressor air intakes on either side of the cowling. This was meant to solve the problem of the drop-off in performance above 23,000 feet. The adaptation was developed for Fw-190s that were used to intercept Mosquitos. The airplane was also armed with the 20mm MG-FF cannon in the outboard position.
Graf never scored a Mosquito, though two of the pilots in the special group did. J.Gr.50 was turned into a field-test unit for weapons to knock down 4-engine bombers, and was the first to use the W.Gr. 21 rockets in combat in the summer of 1943.
Graf's Fw-190 has frequently ended up on decal sheets, but never with complete detail until Lifelike Decals released "Fw-190 Part 3" which had both his airplanes and detailed research on their layouts at various points in their career associated with the changes in markings.
This is the final version, done with an Eduard Fw-190A-5 kit using the resin parts from the "Jabo" limited edition for the intakes, and a 4-cannon lower wing from an Overtrees kit.
Full review at Modeling Madness this Thursday, followed by a post with all photos here.
4 attached images. Click to enlarge.
