Greetings Currahee Chris,
Buying the jagdpanther is an excellent move, and I would love to see your setup of the jagdpanther.
The Abrams, Leopold and Merkhava represents the evolution of tanks to the highest form of this mighty machine of war. I am not interested in either 3 however, due to military tactics and doctorine, they were never really tested against credible opponents.
America's strong point was and always will be their airforce, so too the Israelis. Germany's Bundeswher has been curtailed by their leadership against potraying any form of military might, lest they should be accused of resurging hostile intentions (the tank is after all the symbol of Germany military power).
So we never get to hear the exploits of these 3 tanks, as with Israelis and America, their Airforce will have decimated the enemy armour columns even before their tanks arrived (America - gulf war 1 & 2, Israel - 6 day war, yom kuppur war). The germans hardly show off the Leopold.
When there's no direct enemy contact, there's no stories, legends, myths and Aces about these tanks. If in ww2 Germany's luftwaffe had somehow enough Henshel tank- buster planes and decimated Allied tanks, imagine - there will be no exploits of Aces such as wittmann, baumann, carius and their likes. And we will have hardly known that the Tiger was indeed a mighty tank.
Saying that, i would understand if you long for the Abrams, i think its a beauty.
Back to WW2, The King Tiger would be on my list, esp if they make the Ardennes Camo, with smoking paratroopers from 3rd Fallschirmjager division hitching a ride at the back of the tank (pic 1)
As for the eastern front diorama, i want to highlight that The Germans were not only struggling against a mighty enemy (with almost endless supply of men and material), but the snow, mud and terrain which they are not accustomed to.
So what i have in my mind (shortlisted so far) will be something like this egs (pic 2 & 3)-
Take Care,
Nasir Kasmani.
