Hippo TKL / SKCM Cream / Cyrillic AT101 + 5140 + Tektronix Terminal

Case: Hippo TKL by Jacky Design, WK, raw finish

Switches: Alps SKCM Cream (undamped), nearly NOS with intact factory lube; late version with slightly stronger tactility than early Creams; harvested from an HP Vectra CS

Plate: 1.2mm Delrin (POM), white

PCB: Hippoal - a custom version of the Alpine8Kal made specifically to facilitate this build

Keycaps: Mix of Cyrillic sublegend alphas (AT101); IBM 5140 mods; Tektronix terminal F-row, Backspace, and utility cluster; Datavue Spark arrows; and Datavue 25 double-shot mods (R3 Control, and R5 1u Caps Lock and Alt)

Tuning: Thick Poron foam packed tightly under the space bar, 1mm case foam under the entire build, and low density foam slightly compressed under the top of the build to control and even out flex and bounce.

 

The Hippo TKL by Jackie Design is unusual in many ways amongst modern cases.  For starters, it is huge, and in the raw finish (with machining marks beautifully visible) it has a remarkable desk presence.  That size creates a vast amount of open internal volume under the build, which makes it especially well-suited to Alps switches. It’s also easy to tune, with a couple of mounting styles available and a leaf-spring plate design that gives the builder plenty of latitude in planning and setup.

Not originally Alps-compatible, the HippoAL TKL PCB exists simply to make this build possible.  With such a unique case and so much effort already devoted to this build, equally noteworthy switches and keycaps were chosen.  An all-ivory keycap set was assembled to complement the striking raw case finish, with rare Cyrillic sublegend alphas and the rest filled in with matching Alps Electric thick PBT. Seven color-matched keycaps from two Datavue boards comprise the set.

The switches are about as close to NOS as you’ll get from a harvested vintage board. They’re very smooth under the fingers, with slightly rounded but firm tactility—likely to convince anyone using them that Creams are the most underrated of the complicated Alps variants.