[IC]GMK Triumph Adler [LIVE!!!!]

[ideus]

Why do we have to rely on massdrop?
Since the sets are built in Germany, is there any chance that we find a person in Europe willing to deliver the sets to the european geekhackers?
Also it would be nice to have some blank keys (sold in sets of 4, one for each row) for all those in need of a language pack: a blank key is better than a wrong key.

The motivation for MD involvement was the volume of orders required to reach GMK MoQs. It will increased the cost of the set, and the shipping cost. In other words, is the cost to pay to get the set actually manufactured.

[jdcarpe]

Why do we have to rely on massdrop?
Since the sets are built in Germany, is there any chance that we find a person in Europe willing to deliver the sets to the european geekhackers?
Also it would be nice to have some blank keys (sold in sets of 4, one for each row) for all those in need of a language pack: a blank key is better than a wrong key.

The motivation for MD involvement was the volume of orders required to reach GMK MoQs. It will increased the cost of the set, and the shipping cost. In other words, is the cost to pay to get the set actually manufactured.

In hopes that it will actually get manufactured, if run by Massdrop.

If not run by Massdrop, the MOQ of 500 for a custom color is probably unreachable.

[ideus]

Why do we have to rely on massdrop?
Since the sets are built in Germany, is there any chance that we find a person in Europe willing to deliver the sets to the european geekhackers?
Also it would be nice to have some blank keys (sold in sets of 4, one for each row) for all those in need of a language pack: a blank key is better than a wrong key.

The motivation for MD involvement was the volume of orders required to reach GMK MoQs. It will increased the cost of the set, and the shipping cost. In other words, is the cost to pay to get the set actually manufactured.

In hopes that it will actually get manufactured, if run by Massdrop.

If not run by Massdrop, the MOQ of 500 for a custom color is probably unreachable.

Yes sir. In this condition MD is a necessary evil.

[intelli78]

It will increased the cost of the set, and the shipping cost. In other words, is the cost to pay to get the set actually manufactured.

Massdrop actually has pretty reasonable margins, and keep in mind, if they can blast through to 1000 orders, the cost per participant will probably be lower than if we hadn't used Massdrop at all.

[ideus]

It will increased the cost of the set, and the shipping cost. In other words, is the cost to pay to get the set actually manufactured.

Massdrop actually has pretty reasonable margins, and keep in mind, if they can blast through to 1000 orders, the cost per participant will probably be lower than if we hadn't used Massdrop at all.

Only time will tell. Only people joining will know.

[intelli78]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

[heedpantsnow]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

Cool.  Thanks for your hard work!

[HoffmanMyster]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

YESSSSS

This is great news, thank you for pushing through with this IC/GB and not giving up.  Obviously it's not over yet, but this is further than I think many of us suspected we would make it.   

Also, there's no need to bash Massdrop in this thread.  Without them stepping in here, this might have died, but now we have a chance!   

[slip84]

Groovy.

And any perceived bashing of MD by me is more for the sake of my wallet. I have purposely not joined since first hearing of it to save myself the pain of being a member.

[Zeal]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

Has the final packaging been finalized yet? Plastic trays & presorted?

[Coconut]

I'm confused :<
The update says the legends are teal, but the final render has blue legends, which is it?

[FrostyToast]

I'm confused :<
The update says the legends are teal, but the final render has blue legends, which is it?

The legends SHOULD be blue.
That was what we finally decided on if I recall correctly.

[Joey Quinn]

I'm confused :<
The update says the legends are teal, but the final render has blue legends, which is it?

The legends SHOULD be blue.
That was what we finally decided on if I recall correctly.

I'm pretty sure Blue was the final choice.

[LechnerDE]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

Awwwwwww ****!

This set is so good! Thanks for all the efforts you already put into this GB 

I really hope this will be a huge sucess !

[intelli78]

Blue was the final choice. Here are the colors I am shooting for:



I got these by extensively color sampling and averaging the best TA photos I could find on the web.

GMK wants to color match off a real object, not a digital file, so I am printing many versions of these colors with slight adjustments to account for the inevitable differences in the printed swatches vs. what I see on my MBP Retina screen. I will cherry pick the swatches that look best to me. I'm picking up all the samples from the printers tonight, so I'll post some photos and try to get the white balance as close as possible so you guys can see what we are using.

Keep in mind colors vary a crap load on screens, for MANY reasons.


NOTE: Right now we are only guaranteed to get the teal matched. They MAY be willing to color match either the gray alpha base or the blue for legends -- if possible, we will match these, that's why I am sending them -- but it's not in stone yet. We may end up using the closest stock colors for the gray alphas and blue legends.

[jdcarpe]

GMK wants to color match off a real object, not a digital file

So you are sending them plastic to color match?

[intelli78]

GMK wants to color match off a real object, not a digital file

So you are sending them plastic to color match?

Printed swatches.

[jdcarpe]

GMK wants to color match off a real object, not a digital file

So you are sending them plastic to color match?

Printed swatches.

Oh, okay. So you are printing the color swatches, matching those to the plastic, and then sending them the best swatch samples to match. Gotcha

[intelli78]

Oh, okay. So you are printing the color swatches, matching those to the plastic, and then sending them the best swatch samples to match. Gotcha

Basically... there are kind of a lot of moving parts here, so let me try to explain...

First, my priority isn't necessarily getting as close as possible to the loaner set, though -- it's to get close to the photos in OP. The loaner set, pictured below, has more beige than gray alphas. Not all of the sets aged the same, and the loaner set unfortunately isn't the set in OP.



I'm aiming for this which I think is more attractive. It's a subtle difference but I do think it's more attractive.



So I will send GMK the swatches that are closest to how that looks on my Retina display computer screen (factory calibrated). Then, when the loaner caps arrive at Massdrop they'll do a photo shoot and color-adjust the final photos to better reflect how the colors in the reproduction will look, based on what I've sent GMK, and whether we can get them to agree to color match everything. Like I said it remains to be seen whether we'll get more colors than the teal matched. It will be awesome if they let us use custom colors for everything but it's TBD.

If it turns out we can ONLY get a single custom color (the teal), we may need to change plans, though. I've been using 2B in the GMK renders, but based on the latest color ring photo from them, I'm not liking 2B much. It's too dark and too blue. U9 looks like the best alternative to me - it's kind of in between the gray and the beige TA alphas.



So the tl;dr is, I hope they can color match every single color to my swatches, but if not, probably we will do custom teal with U9 base and V4 legends.

As far as the Massdrop photos go, it is an imperfect solution. We'll be able to Photoshop the photos to approximate the colors we're actually using, but it's still a funky winkeyless set. I wanted to just ask Josh for rights to his photos (ones in OP) instead of ****ing around with a custom shoot and finding loaner caps at all, but Massdrop really wanted to do a custom shoot. *shrug* The custom shoot will give us higher quality photos but doesn't solve the problem of the layout being wrong. I don't really see a better option though. We can try to force GMK to produce a single test set to photograph but I'm pretty sure they aren't gonna go for it, because they have MOQs themselves for all the plastics they'll have to order for the color matching.

Feel free to ask questions if unclear... am open to suggestions about how to do this a better way if possible...

[Heliosphere]

Color matching to the photo's colors would be fantastic. U9 is definitely the closest grey match, although I feel like it could be a slightly "cooler" or bluer grey. The V4 blue seems too vibrant to match with the legends in the photo, which appear darker and greyer/greener.

[jdcarpe]

Ideally, we could get three custom colors for the set, mod base, alpha base, and alpha legends.

[intelli78]

Ideally, we could get three custom colors for the set, mod base, alpha base, and alpha legends.

Yep, that's what I am working on.

[strict]

Ideally, we could get three custom colors for the set, mod base, alpha base, and alpha legends.

Yep, that's what I am working on.

If that works out

[shawn o]

I've always thought that green/blue color on the keys matched the text color on the white/grey keys? Looks that way in every pic I've seen.

[ideus]

I've always thought that green/blue color on the keys matched the text color on the white/grey keys? Looks that way in every pic I've seen.

It was explained several times: The blue on the mods washed out over time in old TA sets.

[dimmu]

i just hope most of the people who supported the IC on massdrop buys at least one set. this would most likely be my end game set.

[bueller]

I've always thought that green/blue color on the keys matched the text color on the white/grey keys? Looks that way in every pic I've seen.

It was explained several times: The blue on the mods washed out over time in old TA sets.

I'll wait and see how the mockup looks when GMK get back to us about custom colours but I feel like it's going to look weird having two different shades of blue. Would have thought the mods and alphas yellowed at a similar rate.

[Den441]

I've always thought that green/blue color on the keys matched the text color on the white/grey keys? Looks that way in every pic I've seen.

It was explained several times: The blue on the mods washed out over time in old TA sets.

I'll wait and see how the mockup looks when GMK get back to us about custom colours but I feel like it's going to look weird having two different shades of blue. Would have thought the mods and alphas yellowed at a similar rate.

It is true that the mods seemed to age more for some reason, but the original boards did in fact use two different blues. The blue used on the alpha legends was different than the blue used for the mods on the original boards. Originally, the blue used for the legends was actually the same blue as the olivetti g80 legends. This can be verified by looking at the TA keyboards' case labels which did not seem to age like the caps. I always thought two custom colors would be ideal because of this....though I did not think it was possible until recently with the surge of interest. Exciting times.

[Moralless]

Update: Just spoke with Massdrop and we are good to go! They were floored by the voting response and this set will be going live as soon as everything is in place with GMK & the color samples. Stay tuned...

Wow that's great news! This will definitely be the first item that I plan to get on massdrop! Interested to experience the shipping horror stories first hand

[intelli78]

Hey guys, wanted to show you a render with U9...
Remember, we really have to look at the photographs, not the renders to get an accurate idea, but I think the renders are still helpful for visualizing the relative lightness or darkness of the tones.

Thoughts? It's less like the OP pics, more like the sample set. I still prefer the gray but lighter is not bad at all.

[FrostyToast]

Hey guys, wanted to show you a render with U9...
Remember, we really have to look at the photographs, not the renders to get an accurate idea, but I think the renders are still helpful for visualizing the relative lightness or darkness of the tones.

Thoughts? It's less like the OP pics, more like the sample set. I still prefer the gray but lighter is not bad at all.

Show Image

I think this is adequate. Although I have learned that GMK is really bad with renders.

[intelli78]

Put a different way... what do you guys think about the grays on the color ring?



If we can't get a custom color, I think it's between U9 and 2B, and of those, I think U9 is the safer choice (and it's actually growing on me, it looks like a pretty good complement to the teal). I wish there were a gray like 2B but slightly lighter.

Does anybody have these keys in their possession? I should have requested some at the beginning... seems they are very slow to dispatch samples.

[nubbinator]

I scanned them in for another IC:





I think 3K is technically a beige even though I lumped it with the greys.  2M is a really nice and light grey.  Colorwise, midway between 2B and 2M is probably where the original would be.

[FrostyToast]

U9 is definitely a great colour for this. I would not mind it at all.

[exitfire401]

I think 2b is closes to the photos. U9 would look amazing with a teal though.

[Heliosphere]

2M seems like a good choice, although it's a bit light. U9 has a tinge of yellow which doesn't seem like it would work with the cooler temperature of the set in the photo.

[intelli78]

I scanned them in for another IC:

Show Image

Show Image

I think 3K is technically a beige even though I lumped it with the greys.  2M is a really nice and light grey.  Colorwise, midway between 2B and 2M is probably where the original would be.

That's super helpful, thank you Nubbinator.

I agree that 2B is the closest to the OP photo set. Though, it is still unclear to me how true to life those photos really are. I suspect there may be some color balance or other shenanigans making them look grayer than reality. For example, I believe this is the same exact keyboard, and here the alphas look more yellow:



In the above photo, and in other TA sets like the Massdrop loaner set below,



the alphas look closest to U9. Contrary to Heliosphere's opinion, I actually think a slight yellow tint DOES complement the teal, and arguably gives the whole set more depth than a more monotone gray. There's something about the interaction between the very slight yellow, the blue legends, and the teal, that I think works. I have had my heart set on the gray version since the beginning, but since re-discovering U9 it's definitely growing on me.

tough call...

[FrostyToast]

Yellow tint is a really nice contrast with the teal.
I was actually planning on buying a yellowed set of alphas just to use with these mods.

[nubbinator]

U9 is basically Cherry Modifier color.  I wouldn't be a fan.  It really doesn't look good at all to me, but that's my opinion.  Personally, I think 2M is a better choice Followed by 3K.  Neither are as dark, but I think the colors look better and the other options are too much darker.

While not perfect, these should give you a rough idea:

2B



U9



2M



3K



CP



L9



UN0001

[intelli78]

U9 is basically Cherry Modifier color.  I wouldn't be a fan.  It really doesn't look good at all to me, but that's my opinion.  Personally, I think 2M is a better choice.

While not perfect, these should give you a rough idea:

2B

Show Image

U9

Show Image

2M

Show Image

3K

Show Image

CP

Show Image

L9

Show Image

UN0001

Show Image

Thanks for the mockups... I have to say, in my opinion, these confirm it's 2B or U9. 2M with the teal modifiers isn't bad, it's just definitely not Triumph Adler IMO.

Edit: Also, while the legends are pretty thin on these mockups, the 2B mockup makes me nervous about the contrast with dark blue legends. From your scans the situation looks better but it's still hard to tell. Cherry legends are thicker than these mockups but it's hard to know what the end result will really look like. It would not be good to pick 2B and have terrible legend contrast.

[nubbinator]

IMO, U9 looks like ****.  Then again, I'm opinionated.

Legend contrast should be fine with 2B. 

[luckyryan333]

Well, 2B is a good choice, but U9 would be the best choice for this case as intelli78 mentioned, I guess.

[Heliosphere]

I prefer the look of the original mockup with the dark grey alphas over the sun-baked look of U9, although it does appear closer to the other example in the yellower example in the OP.



versus

[jonathanyu]

Imo, 2B wouldn't work.  My FR ISO Olivett has a grey that really close to U9, and it doesn't look very good with dark blue legend, but still look fine.  So I think 2B would be too dark for alpha keys.

[Den441]

2B looks a bit dark to me. I could really only make the call if I saw the keys in person though. If only 2B were a bit lighter it would be an easy call. Right now, I would have to say U9. A bit too yellow for my taste; however, it is still consistent with the fact that this buy is a replica of a patina'd TA keyset. If you use 2B and it is too dark, it will go against the concept of this set.

[Heliosphere]

2B is definitely too dark. If only there was an option that was several shades lighter.

[morpheus]

Man, I was just in for Hyperfuse, this is gonna hnnnnnnngggghhhh

[whentheclouds]

if i had to pick my poison it would be 2B, but neither are optimal choices

[jdcarpe]

2B is definitely WAY too dark for alphas. U9 also looks like poo.

Those photos of the classic TA sets both have crap white balance.

What's wrong with 2M or 3K?

[strict]

I think U9 looks awful. It looks like a worn out and sun faded 2M. Like something you would use retrobright on.

If I had to pick from only those choices, I think either 2B or 2M is the way to go, 2B being the better of the two. If we could get a custom color about half way in between 2B and 2M that would be perfect in my opinion.