GMK Umbra | Completed | Nov. 1 - Dec. 16, 2019

Greetings from 2020!

Due to some conflict in RAL colors with GMK, I was required to find replacement colors for RAL 270 20 10 and RAL 270 30 10.
This is not a huge deal though, as the new colors are very close and have very little differences.
The new colors are RAL 260 30 10 and RAL 260 20 05. They are reflected in these official GMK renders:

After the announcement of the recent color changes, I commissioned Abec13, who did the previous Iron165 renders, to re-render them with the new colors. Here is the result:

(Click more for old colors)

Samples have finally arrived!

Took a while, but here we are.
My review: The accent color is perfect, and the alpha color matches really well. The only problem is the modifier color; it seems a bit too dark so I will need to revise it. I took two pictures comparing all of them: The first one is outside, rainy afternoon, and the second one is inside with a little warm lighting from my lamp, comparing the color to my HHKB (Pro 2) and deskmat (Godspeed Laser). Keep in mind that none of these samples have blue legends, so if you feel like something's missing/off, that's probably it

There are still no updates for estimated shipping, so around June is my fair bet. Matching the modifier color will probably add a few weeks if I do request samples.
Deskmat orders should be shipping in the US from Kono.store by now. For other regions, I have not gotten details yet, so you can ask your regional vendor for more information regarding deskmats.
Cables are going to be manufactured and sent out sooner or later; the cable maker said there is still a queue for other group buys so I will update with any available information in the future.
RAMA Caps will be manufactured and an estimated shipping time will be announced after I have confirmed the final colors with GMK for production.

Please feel free to share any opinions about the colors of these samples. If you have any requests for photos of the samples in different settings, I'd be happy to do it within my reach.

Sorry for the wait.
I have decided to proceed with the existing colors. I'll attach some images comparing the samples to CR. Notice the color difference - it's not nearly as dark as it seems. Don't worry about the colors, it's really hard to gauge colors from photos, especially different ones taken by a phone camera, and everyone's monitor is different. GMK has matched the original colors as close as they can be.

GMK Final Renders. Made a couple of small changes: "Lock" and "Num Lock" changed to "Scroll" and "Num" for consistency. Dakuten on Hiragana "modernized."
New estimated shipping: August - GMK gives a rough 23-25 week estimate from the invoice date for projects now, and that's what I'm basing this off of.

A small update:

GMK requested for Umbra to use the new packaging, so the packaging design has changed a little bit.
I don't have any new renders but they aren't really needed because the design still remains largely the same.

If you have concerns about the new packaging and watched some videos where it wasn't very good (8008, for example), GMK is already revising the new packaging and I hope that will be reflected before this set gets made and shipped out. However, I have no control over how quickly GMK will resolve the new packaging issues, but I'm hoping for the issues to be fixed before then.

If you don't know about this change or want more info, here is the link to the official announcement: https://uniqey.net/en/blog/detail/sCategory/8/blogArticle/16

RAMA x Umbra
Unfortunately, RAMA's manufacturer only anodizes with Pantone references, so the exact modifier color cannot be represented in this artisan cap.
I have decided to use Pantone 433 C, as it is the closest color to RAL 260 20 05 that I could match.
The difference in the colors means that the artisan cap will be darker than the modifiers, however I believe that the darker color can serve as a nice accent piece to Esc or F13.

The sets have arrived at Mykeyboard! Shipping to other vendors will commence soon, I expect most to have their sets by the end of next month.

Disclaimer: Pictures are pictures, they will vary a lot from screen to screen, and they are not comparable to viewing them in real life. However, I think these pictures are an accurate representation of GMK Umbra (albeit a little undersaturated). I think it turned out great!

Base: 98
Hiragana: 39
Spacebar: 40
Deskmat: 40
RAMA: 20