If I remember correctly, the development of the dragon Z-39 kit was supervised by 2 veteran modelers known for their passion of achieving historical accuracy, and it is my personal belief that they would settle for nothing short of original plans in designing this kit.
I previously read two write-ups by Howard Irving Chapelle, a well known modeler, naval architect, and curator of maritime history at the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., regarding what boat/ship models ought to be built and what models ought not to be built. Here, he emphasized that accurate ship models can only be made using contemporary/primary plans. Those interested in further reading can see the links below:
http://www.thenrg.org/models-that-shoul ... hapell.phphttp://www.thenrg.org/models-that-shoul ... apelle.phpWhile the discussions above focused on sailing ships, the principles therein are very much applicable to more recent models. A model can only be considered to have an accurately shaped hull if her lines were developed using original plans. In other words, while the books stated in the earlier discussions provide some nice looking plans that show lines differing from the Dragon kit, we should always remember that these are only secondary references and any data given by secondary references must always be taken with a grain of salt.
As an example, the hull of the Brig Badger kit in my signature was designed using the adjacent original 18th Century draughts from the National Maritime Museum. If modelers are able to get hold of these plans made way back in the 18th Century, then it is certainly not impossible to get hold of original plans of the Z-39 destroyer built just several decades ago.
I believe that the designers of the kit conducted thorough research and used primary sources in developing the hull of this kit. On the other hand, if someone could show me an original Z-39 plan showing a hull shape that differs from that of the kit, then I would gladly bash my kit's hull to correspond to that plan.
Hopefully, the designers could chime in to finally close this long standing argument.