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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_linkYou 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)