Weisman, it's very nice; the lines are congruent with the established line drawings of the class. However (and this is an error I see quite often), your Asama is not depicted as of 1899, but rather as of during the Russo-Japanese War 1904-05. As completed, the IJN Asama sported a black-and-white livery: hull black with dark red boot topping, the same as the bottom hull shade, white superstructure and black funnels with the appropriate number of white funnel bands. In 1902/03 the IJN ships were, for the most part repainted in a dark shade of grey, not the Royal navy grey you've used, and it was in such a 'camouflage' that the Asama went to war.
So, my preferred suggestion is to repaint the ship appropriately, and keep the date, then, again re-shade the grey into a darker nuance, erect the whip W/T aerial on her main mast and send her off to war as of 1904!
Hi, bezobrazov! To trust this color scheme I tried to explore things in advance. And because my sources are mostly in Russian, so briefly.
There is written:
At the beginning of his service, all Japanese armored cruisers were painted in light gray (almost white) color - standard for the Japanese fleet in the period 1899 - 1901. September 1901 repainting them black and light gray. On the eve of war again repaint them in a dark gray color. In all likelihood, that situation took place in January 1904. It is true that the statements that meet the new standard of painting began to be applied before the end of 1902 - beginning of 1903, but above all in the case just about experiments. So, I'm not going to change the color scheme.
with respect: Weisman