Hello!
I am Ellia.
I've recently discovered the vast possibilities of custom keyboards and already built my very first and very own board (it is only couple of days old, so to say). As there are no one in close proximity with whom I can discuss the newly acquired hobby, I've decided to forgone my usual habit of lurking in shadows in favor of making new friends here (hopefully).
For my first board I have chosen the hot-swap option of Melody 96 by YMDK, mixing several types of Kailh switches for that extra custom-ness, so to say. Honestly speaking, the idea itself was not mine, I stumbled upon it while deciding on the switches and finding that one video, where some genius soul mixed Kailh Pro Purple (I was considering these) with several Box Royals for bigger keys like spacebar. If you are reading this, thank you very much! For now it feels like I found my perfect switches!
Of course, it very well may be, that in couple of days/weeks/months I would realise that the chosen "ideal" switches (and the rest of the board) are not my cup of tea, and I again would dive into the deeps of the Web in the pursuit of perfection. I know the feeling from my other hobbies
But for now I am perfectly content with the board I've built with its sturdy aluminium-and-acrylic case allowing for more place on the table thanks to the reduced size of the 96-keyboard (although during the last several months of owning full-fledged PC accompanied by several full keyboards to choose from I've already managed to get used to the spacious full-size keyboards after years of laptops and their "cut-off" keyboards).
And I squeal in delight every time my eyes fall on the caps, they are so perfect and nicely done, and it brings goosebumps to my arms from the sensation of how smooth they feel to the touch. Unfortunately, for some short time I need to bear with stickers on those perfect caps before I would go and do a laser engraving (I've recently realized that my touch typing skill is not as high as I thought it to be and I need the Cyrillic symbols for Russian language), but as soon as I got hold of another bit of extra money to spend I am off to engraver!
And here are couple of pictures of this beauty:
