Sick grow bb!! Those closeups are beautiful!
As for drying/curing I'll try to link you to what I used as a reference but it was a thread that was on here, so I don't know if you've already came across it or not. I also read the articles on high times about drying/curing.
What I ended up doing is drying in a well ventilated cardboard box running one small 80mm fan at half its power in my guest room which remained in absolute darkness for about 5-6 days. Afterwards I stuck them in jars with a hygrometer to see where the humidity was at and if they were anywhere in the range of 65-68 I began the curing process. If they were out of range I would let them hang out a bit more.
What I found out was that, what everyone's been saying in terms of waiting for the stem to snap is true; well to a certain extent... I'll clarify.
I ended up using humidipaks to cure/store my stuff, so going by what the opposing side had said about the stem snapping and it being too dry by then and it being a bad thing, I ended up curing/storing when the stem would break but not snap completely off and with the humidipaks it took FOREVER to cure and even dry for that matter. Hell some of them that have been sitting in jars since July are still holding onto a fair share of moisture from the stem (the stem won't snap off completely).
So what I ended up doing was taking half of them out and re-drying them for a couple of hours until the stem actually did snap off with a clean break and that was some really good clean smoke. So I think it depends on how you plan on curing/storing them. If you're going to have a humidipak then dry until the stem snaps off completely, if you're not going to use a humidipak I would dry until the stem breaks but doesn't snap off completely. That way you have enough moisture in the stem to slowly cure the bud and let all the terpenes and thc do their thing w/ the occasional burping here and there of course.
I think the difference is in how the humidipak keeps the moisture at a consistent 62 which will hold moisture in the stem of the plant for an even longer amount of time than if you wouldn't have a humidipak or something else keeping moisture in the jar.
Just what I've observed myself, anyways can't wait for those jar pics!! And CONGRATS on some sweet bud!!