Been thinking of doing this for over a year and finally got round to it. Found parts. Spent hours soldering, lubricating, stuffing with foam and programming QMK. So happy with the final result. It's a joy to use.
Gateron yellow switches. YMDK PCB, backplate and case. Ali Express keycaps.
It's a budget build and none of this is high end......but it has still worked out really well.
Bold choice to have your arrow keys all in a row. Did you consider VIM arrow order when choosing a layout?
I'm still figuring out QMK/Vial. What I actually want to do is use right shift as "up" is tapped and "shift" if held down. I can do that with auto hot key, but haven't figured out how to do it yet with QMK.
If anyone is able to help ELI5 how to add tapdancing and combos to QMK vial forked firmware that would help a lot.