IJAAF and IJNAS....

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Well, the later Ki-45's of the 53rd Sentai most likely did not carry the cannon armament under the fuselage as they were formed into Air superiority "Ramming" units and had weight removed to help climb rate to actually get up to intercept the B-29's.

The "Kai" referred to 'Improved' versions while the other designators "Hei", "Tei" and "Koh" or "Otsu" referred mainly to armament configurations like a, b, c...
 
About the camo 'splotches', I'd guess since they were painted as such while likely at a local/regional battle maintenance area or prior to flying out to their units location from their districts home base.

As most pics and profiles suggest I've seen of similar patterns, they mostly have seem to sharper/cleaner edgings - of course, one person I don't think sprayed/painted just the whole aircraft if the craft was larger than a single engine fighter, so their could be casual differences between the easily accessable areas and the not so accessable (from the ground for instance), as well as variations between front rear and port starboard wings depending upon the size if it were a larger aircraft.

Look for a online pdf I think called 'Japanese Camouflage of WW2' or 'Japanese Markings Camouflage of WW2'
 
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Ki-45 KAIb*
retrofit version based on the KAIa, 20mm belly cannon replaced by a 37mm type 94 field gun

Ki-45 KAIc*
Mark C version against naval objectives, one 37*mm (1.46*in) Ho-203 automatic cannon in the nose, one 7.92*mm (.312*in) machine gun in the back position.

So, if I understand things right, the above 'c', isn't a 'c' but a but a 'b', right?
And I haven't found any pics of a belly gunpod, like the one in the profile, only in threeway drawings, and this profile that we have here....
Only pic that I've found is this...



Found other pics of Ki-45's as well.....











 
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Loving the Toryu pics you found there
I believe the order of kanji used in 'model' developmental denotation is...

Ko, Otsu, Hei, Tei, Bo, Ki etc (in the phonetic order in Kanji, aka a kanji-betical equivalent of A, B, C, D, E, F etc).

Note, the Ki in Kanji, is not to be confused with the 'Ki' abbreviation for Kitai or 'Type' (Year of Service Acceptance Type) designation, where the 2 numbers correspond to the (Ancient) Japanese calendar where 1940 = 2600 IIRC.

Also with the Japanese naming systems depending upon the war situation, sometimes latter models had less weaponry, ammo, kit or a mix of bits and bobs missing and swopped back from earlier models with newer developments too, so following the models/marks kit progression won't always highlight an actual model type to 100% certainty.

I'm Shin-senpai or other members can provide the correct terms, if searching online isn't quick enough.
 
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Indeed so Shin, lovely to see a Zuisai look-a-like engine too (shrunken Kasai 45). That 3rd picture with the two Toryu's climbing, its shapes and colourings seems familiar. None the less, great artwork (as always)
 
Annoying that it seem impossible, to find a good pic on the Ki-45's belly mounted gun, the 37mm seem to have been mounted in the nose and the 20mm in the fuselage, not seen a 'gun pod' shaped cannon in the fuselage yet....(moan)....







 
I'd imagine that only a few of the Toryu units might have trialled the belly 37mm operator mag/clip reloaded cannon, (before and while the automatic one was being developed for the nose mount) and those ones probably didn't photo it (or they kept them hidden still, or destroyed them later in the war) - I'd also imagine those that were so equipped were among the best crews in their sentai's/chutai's for at least speed and accuracy.

I'm sure there could be modelling info about the boxier gun cowling for the 37mm; In IL2 1946 v4.12, they 37mm equipped ones are a bit of a pain to correctly paint the box, as initially hidden areas of the skins masking are laterally wrapped around it - this involves a lot of trial and error removing masking to 'paint the box', but that's a different story; sort of.
 
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Without a doubt you're right mate....
Hopefully, it should be alright to paint an airframe (no, not Terry!) with the belly mounted 20mm cannon in this camouflage and markings....
 
That's the one! Thank you very much my friend!
I can imagine, that this was a rather unusual installation, in the Ki-45, or....?
Haven't seen in any kit form or resin, for this machine.

Thanks again Shinpachi!
 
You are welcome, Lucky.

It was five years ago I made this, so I've forgot details but the idea came from installing a tank cannon to shoot the superforts.
 
Excellent work on the Toryu Shinpachi!

That 37mm mount could be fashioned out of plastic card Jan...something new for you to try...

Those 2 boxings i was talking about are these Jan...
 

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