[IC] GMK Mudbeam

[scud80]

All older news will be collected in the second post here, in chronological order.  Group buy still scheduled to start with NovelKeys in October.

News: Well, this is a couple weeks later than I was planning for an update, but here we are.  I've just submitted kits, and pricing is being determined now.  Still on schedule for GB starting in October.  Once I have renders for the kits I'll post pics here, as opposed to using KLE images.  Proxies will be NovelKeys, mykeyboard.eu, DeskHero, and Daily Clack.  There will likely be a deskmat GB a few months after the keyset GB, so that they fulfill around the same time.  Matching artisan raffles will happen a week or two after the GB concludes.  I'm still finalizing the roster for that, but there will be solid artisan support.

[scud80]

(pic by 89sec)

I've been working on this keyset on and off this year, and with my previous GB essentially complete I'm comfortable moving forward with this project now.  I'd like to get feedback from the community, with the goal of running the group buy for this set starting in mid-January.

This is a keyset inspired by the Mudbeam colorway from Hunger Work Studios.  In talking with Binge about it, he said that his idea for the colorway was mud coming up from cracks in pavement, so I decided on a demolition/urban renewal theme for the novelty kit and he was quite enthusiastic about that idea.  Colors for this kit will be custom, matched to resin samples provided by HWS.

I haven't gotten renders of the kit or pricing from GMK yet, but it should be in line with other recent GMK sets of comparable size.  My proposed kits below are a main kit with TKL support, a Numpad/ISO kit, an Ergodox/Ortho kit, a Spacebar kit, and a Novelty kit.  The Ergodox/Ortho kit will be all blanks, but I am open to adding a 40s kit with legends if there is enough interest since I know not everyone is as fond of blanks as me.  Adding a kit for yellow spacebars is also an option.  I'm not sure what all should be included in a 40s kit with legends, so please let me know what you'd like to see in there.

There will be quite a bit of artisan support for the set, with HWS providing resin samples so that colors can be matched.  In addition to HWS, there will be a 4 monster set with logo keys from Artkey, and I have initial agreement from Nightcaps, Ritual Master, and Primecaps as well to make matching artisans.  I'm pretty fond of artisan caps, so I will try to add more if possible.  I would also like to have a deskmat or two to offer, but I have not talked with any designers about that yet.  I also have not spoken to any vendors about hosting the GB other than mykeyboard.eu.  Since I have run multiple GBs I would be ok with doing the USA portion myself, but I would prefer to have someone else run it, and I would definitely like to have proxies available for those in Asia and Oceania.  So, if you're a vendor for these areas or the USA that would be interested in hosting the group buy please let me know!

Here's a form to get some feedback on questions I have for you.  Things like what should be in the base kit, what spacebars are useful, what legends to use for the numpad, etc.
https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdLGq55nrjipu4S00SYK-uSx54h279Dznd1B-3sTIfhh7gZKw/viewform?usp=sf_link

You can also feel free to add feedback/comments/questions in this thread and I'll respond as best I can.

Renders (by janglad):

Dharma



Bauer



Ergodox



Kira




M60



Kits:

These don't have the icons in the KLE images, but they will use the standard small GMK icons as seen in the renders.

Base


Numpad/ISO


Spacebars


Ergo/Ortho


Additional/Optional?


Novelty kit (illustrations by biip):

I will also plan to offer individual wire keycaps in both colors in whatever quantity is desired, so that the plunger/wire/dynamite can be strung across the whole F-row.  The base novelty kit will come with 2 wire caps in each color.  There's also a question in the form about how many of the R4 hard hat, barrier, and crowbar/sledgehammer to include in the novelty kit.  There are 20 novelty keys pictured, but it could be as large as 32 keys.


HBCP (note: alpha-colored function keys will not be in any kit)



TGR Jane (note: alpha-colored function keys will not be in any kit)


And for those that made it this far, here's a preview of the Artkey 4 monster set:

(pic by Artkey)

[le_bauser]

About time! Love it, looking forward to it.

[vi0till]

I see yellow and I just want it. Nice set

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

[Rejeckted]

Lookin good ill be in for sure

[tex_live_utility]

Interesting. Custom colors?

[scud80]

Interesting. Custom colors?

yep, custom colors matched from resin color chips provided by HWS.  hopefully that should reduce the back-and-forth since they'll be able to see what it should look like in person for comparisons.

[Steezus]

Interesting. Custom colors?

Colors for this kit will be custom, matched to resin samples provided by HWS.

[Mcnos]

Interesting. Custom colors?

Colors for this kit will be custom, matched to resin samples provided by HWS.

In short,

Yes.

I like the set, and the artkeys even more.

[rowie]

I see yellow and I just want it. Nice set

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

I agree! I see yellow and I want it. Although this would be a for sure yes for me if it had a separate alphas all in yellow with grey lettering.  )

[equalunique]

I'm in just for the ErgoDox mods, unless Colevrak is an option.

[_rubik]

Interesting colorway. Unique for sure; that yellow accent really shakes things up. Also, those artisans are 

[edasaur]

personally not a big fan of the red enter and esc accents, but I really like the other colors, so still excited to see how this develops!

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[scud80]

but it's a red "Do Not Enter"!!

[edasaur]

but it's a red "Do Not Enter"!!

you're right, my bad. no objections from me anymore

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[scud80]

i actually wanted the red escape to be a "do not enter" graphic, but the standard red circle with white line in it from our road signs would look weird with the color reversed.  the only other one i could think of to use is the triangle with the exclamation point which is already taken by the carbon warning signs kit.  if anybody has a better idea i'm open to changing it, because i *really* like the do not enter key and would like to have something for the escape position to pair with it.  there's also the HWS logo in the novelty kit, but i'd rather not have that be the only option for a 2nd red key for those that don't want to use it.

[Ensaum]

Don't currently have a yellow set, so I'm interested.

[Agilr]

Beige alphas really tie the other colours nicely, and give the set character from what would usually be white alphas.

It's real nice, and I want

Love the addition of "Do Not Enter" in base kit too, and Biip did a great job capturing the theme of it, so might have to get on those too

Edit: I do believe that 6u alpha-coloured spacebars should be put into spacebars kit with the mod-coloured ones though as very little boards use it and would make the base kit cheaper, but that's up to you at the end of the day. Also, there's Code and Super 1u keys, but only 1.25u Super keys so unsure if that's a mistake or done intentionally

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Ask T0mb3ry about the warning sign use? It's a different color, the theme is appropriate for this set but theyre otherwise different. And the mould is already made?

[Kerasan]

What are the differences between this and gmk gold rush? Alpha color and the tone of yellow?

[vi0till]

What are the differences between this and gmk gold rush? Alpha color and the tone of yellow?

The name said it, Muddy look.

Sent from my VOG-L29 using Tapatalk

[HOBI3CAT]

Really loving the inspiration for this set, so I'm excited to see where it goes!

[Kokaloo]

Black & Yellow keycap IC #4 here we goooooo
Let's see which one makes it to GB first!

[jamst149]

OMG looks fire then you name those artisans!!!!   Fo sure

[Datastream]

It's definitely black & yellow season for caps and I'm glad it is.

[d4vid4f]

YES! We need more yellow keysets!

[_rubik]

It's definitely black & yellow season for caps and I'm glad it is.

Right!? Debating which set will look best when I inevitably buy into J-02

actually, come to think of it... OP, any chance we can get a J02 render 

[dr_unconscionable]

Looks great! Love the idea of the red Do Not Enter—just have some concerns about the shade of the red. But maybe it’s fine

[depletedvespene]

Now THIS is how all space bar kits should look like.

A minor quibble about the Numpad/ISO kit: the R4 \| key is presented as /| instead (a trivial error, with a trivial solution). I'd also add an R3 \| key to the kit (but that's not a minor quibble ).

[Abec13]

Yellow?

Hook me up.

[rrsurmeier]

i need more renders. 

[dantambok]

this looks nice 

[scud80]

the shade of red isn't final, since that's the one color that wasn't in the HWS set.  i asked for the standard color RO2 for the initial renders, but i'll talk to binge about whether a different shade might work better.

i actually hadn't seen gold rush before, but that one has white alphas and brown mods vs beige alphas and gray mods here, so really the only similarity is the yellow accent.  seems fairly different to me.

[mrkantz]

Really digging this set and the spacebar kit

[Beerbezerker]

Loving the design of this set, the artisans are fantastic too. Awesome work!

[farmisen]

i actually wanted the red escape to be a "do not enter" graphic, but the standard red circle with white line in it from our road signs would look weird with the color reversed.  the only other one i could think of to use is the triangle with the exclamation point which is already taken by the carbon warning signs kit.  if anybody has a better idea i'm open to changing it, because i *really* like the do not enter key and would like to have something for the escape position to pair with it.

What about a traffic cone? Fits well with the overall theme and almost mean do not enter. Or may be the stop with a sign by itself or centered in a hexagon but I am not sure you have enough foot print on an esc key to draw that and keep it legible and stylized enough.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[HOBI3CAT]

Any chance a 1u Alt and Ctrl key could be added to the base kit? Feel like those are pretty commonly used. And then one pair could be taken out of the additional set.
Also, love the fact that you have a 1u and 1.5u backspace key in the base kit!

[scud80]

Brief update here: this set will be running with NovelKeys in October.  There will be occasional news updates here until then, with more substantial updates coming in the 4-8 weeks prior to the start of the group buy.

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Glad to hear both facets of that update.

[Beerbezerker]

Looking killer!!

[McFlufferSocks]

Any updates ?

[dvorcol]

The blank 1.75 keycaps in the Spacebars and Additional/Optional kit pics aren't marked convex, but they could be since GMK has 1.75c tooling.

[Randalljai]

Any updates ?

forgot about this IC. hopefully there's something in the works

[konstantin]

Base

Show Image

I see some potential improvements that can be made to this base kit:

• R1 End and PgDn should be moved to the numpad kit as they are only useful on boards that have a numpad (1800, CP, 96-key).
• R1 1u mod colored \| isn't really useful and should be removed.
• R1 1u Backspace can be removed as it's a seldom used key, and you already have a R1 1u Delete that can cover for it.
• The two R4 1u Code keys should be 1u Ctrl and Alt instead.
• R3 PgUp and R4 PgDn should be added to help cover some popular 65%/75% right column options.
• The off-centered stem 6u spacebar can be safely removed, or moved to the spacebars kit.

[McFlufferSocks]

Any updates ?

forgot about this IC. hopefully there's something in the works

Yeah I’ve been looking for this color combo in this style for so long I hope it doesn’t get dropped

[Randalljai]

Any updates ?

forgot about this IC. hopefully there's something in the works

Yeah I’ve been looking for this color combo in this style for so long I hope it doesn’t get dropped

Only thing now is I'm going to need those hws artisans

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[tex_live_utility]

Shame this isn't stock colors. Like GMK Coniferous, Hydro, or Violet Tendencies, but yellow. Still very nice colorway overall, GL.

[scud80]

Quick note for those interested.  Tokkipee is running a FCFS sale tomorrow for their Sakura artisans that are pretty closely matched to Mudbeam (I had nothing to do with this).

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9lGulGHssz/

No updates on the keyset for now.  Once we get a couple months out from the GB launch things will start happening more often.

[McFlufferSocks]

Quick note for those interested.  Tokkipee is running a FCFS sale tomorrow for their Sakura artisans that are pretty closely matched to Mudbeam (I had nothing to do with this).

https://www.instagram.com/p/B9lGulGHssz/

No updates on the keyset for now.  Once we get a couple months out from the GB launch things will start happening more often.

Cool

[scud80]

Canada proxy added, and I'm now looking into colormatched USB cables.