Thanks to Lyric1 for finding me the reference photos I used for this skin.
This Ki-43 was one of many donated to the IJAAF by public subscription and was issued to the 77th Fighter Regiment based in Burma in 1944. It featured a field-applied two-tone disruptive camouflage scheme painted over its natural metal finish.
The 77th Fighter Regiment was formed in China in 1937 where it flew obsolete Type 97 biplane fighters against the increasingly superior aircraft of the Chinese air force and the American-backed AVG. It then fought the RAF and the AVG during the Japanese advance through Burma in the first half of 1942 before being withdrawn back to China. In August 1943 it received more modern Ki-43 fighters and shortly after was transferred first to Sumatra and then to Thailand and Burma. In March 1944 they were moved again, this time to New Guinea in a desperate attempt to shore up the IJAAF's forces there. Here it fought bravely for a month but could do little against the overwhelmingly strong USAAF forces in the area. On April 22nd the US launched an amphibious assault of the 77th's island base and the group's pilots and ground crew were ordered to march up the coast to safety. Starvation and disease accounted for most of them though and only a handful ever made it back to Japan.
