Hold on just a minute. Your buddies are correct. The TopFlite "Hollywood Zero" doesn't even come close to being true scale for a Zero. The shape of the wing and the horizontal stabilizer is all wrong, as in verrrrrry wrong!

You have to understand what a "Hollywood Zero" really is. For the filming of the movie, Tora, Tora, Tora, aircraft that look similar to Japanese aircraft were needed. To make an aircraft that the general public would mistake for a Zero, they used AT-6s. They changed the canopy shape to resemble that of a Zero and I believe they changed the profile of the vertical stabilizer as well and painted them up in the colors of Japanese aircraft from the time of the Pearl Harbor attack and applied Japanese markings.

If what you really want is a true scale zero, The TF "Hollywood Zero" is a poor excuse. There are much better examples out there than this kit.