QB resin is up there regarding quality, and I have bought a set for the Tamiya 109E - they look very nice indeed, as does the ones you have shown for the B-17. Lookinf forward to be seeing the machined ones on the plane though!

Nice progress, Walt! Looks awesome! The cockpit looks dramatically realistic.

Well really getting close now. All glazings have been glued in and are masked and ready for paint. I glued the wings on. It hasn't all gone smoothly but I kept on pushing forward. The fit of the Radio Operators glass was terrible, and I may still have to do more work to it once I get some primer on it. It is my goal to start painting tomorrow, but the yard and house work may get in the way.

6 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Looking great, Walt (@luftwaffe-birdman). At some point, with a plane this big, it becomes a logistics problem just finding the clear space to work on it. By this time I would be banging it into stuff on my workbench trying to get stuff done. Painting time is getting close.

Hi Walt @luftwaffe-birdman!
You've done some nice progress and your B-17 looks amazing.
I also like a lot your masking qualities, the belly turret being the star of the show: it indeed looks like a Starwars fighter!
This is going to be a super B-17!

Well let the painting begin. Since the time I made my last post, and started painting a post on the Facebook B-17 Flying Fortress Scale Modeler's Workshop page about building the Swoose popped up, but using the Hong Kong Models kit. Well I followed the link to the Britmodeller Forum where he had blogged his build. First off I would suggest if you want to see how a REALLY good modeler does this kit then I suggest you look at this page. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?%2Ftopic%2F235077349-hk-models-b-17g-148-%E2%80%9Cthe-swoose%E2%80%9D-463rd-bg%2F&fbclid=IwAR3DrAF2slt0sNj7jfH7hR2Xd3fCQhc1iKTWRYM5Wp4LqnrnZTAh2aJTRAg

I am absolutely humbled and impressed at the skill at which he built and painted this kit. That said I plod along with my own meager efforts and making the most of the newly found information I got from this blog.

I learned at some point the left horizontal stabilizer was replaced with a bare metal one. I have decided to go ahead and try to duplicate that here. I have a fear of painting aircraft silver or even parts of them. I have never been able to adequately duplicate the natural metal finish that so many superior modelers pull off ( @darren-d , @moixmodels ). I first did my pre-shading using black along the panel lines and then doing a randomly squiggle pattern over the entire model. It is just too big of a kit to just do the panel lines, I think the random squiggles will help bring variable shades to the OD and Neutral Gray when I cover them, plus I use multiple shades of these colors when I paint.

7 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Progress is getting along well.
Curious how this preshading will eventually look like when the final layers are on.

I think your build looks great, Walt (@luftwaffe-birdman). You are right about adding more than just the panel line pre-shades. The next steps will take a lot of paint and time, so get your paints stocked.