Hobby Master 1/48 HA7420 FW 190A-4 "Eagle Head" 9./JG 2, Staffelkapitan Hptm. Siegfried Schnell, Feb., 1943

“The model and box are in excellent condition, complete with all parts. Photographs are of the model being offered for sale and form part of the description.”

In 1937 even though the Me-109 was a very capable fighter the Reichsluftfahrtministeriun (RLM) or Reich Air Ministry was worried that future foreign designs might surpass its performance so they called for submissions of designs. Kurt Tank won the competition with his radical use of an air-cooled radial engine that he dubbed the Fw-190 Wurger (Butcher Bird). There were many skeptics who believed this new aircraft would surpass the performance of the Me-109. However when the Fw-190 entered combat in the summer of 1941 it already was Germany’s premiere piston-powered WWII fighter. Over 20,000 of all variants of the Fw-190 were built with 13,291 of these being of the 9 different “A” variants.

Siegfried “Wumm” Schnell was assigned to IV./JG 2 scoring his first victory on May 14, 1940 and by the end of October 1940 had 20 victories. June 1941 he transferred to 9./JG 2 and In February 1943 replaced his Bf-109 with an Fw-190A-4 W.Nr. 746 and 80 victories by April 1943. On May 1, 1943 Schnell went to 111./JG 54 and then February 11, 1944 to IV./JG 54 on the Eastern Front flying a Bf-109. Schnell had 93 victories when he was shot down on February 25, 1944.