Sounds good JMart. I have changed your build to the Ausf. G. And thanks for the little history about the steel wheeled Panthers. I thought a good many Ausf. G's had steel wheels. The IR gear and splinter camo sound cool too. I actually plan to put IR gear on my King Tiger II as well.
RBaer; Russ, the Marines actually put 18 inch GE spotlights on some M46 Pattons during Korea. It would be a good alternative to IR gear. Another thing to consider, with the Germans developing IR gear for their tanks, there would have been more German tanks on the prowl at night. The Army and Marines were starting to field their early IR scopes at the end of the war but I think they only saw use in the Pacific and later in Korea and Vietnam. These were called the Sniperscope and the Snooperscope. Now with the IR lamp provided, these were only effective to about 200 yards, maybe 300 yards max depending on conditions. But with a larger lamp of lets say 18 inch, the range would be better. It was reported that these devices significantly decreased the danger of Japanese infiltrators at night. The Russians also recieved some of these through the Lend-Lease program. If the threat of German tanks at night became great enough, I would think that the Americans and Russians would have adapted these systems to work on tanks as well. No doubt the M26 would have recieved this treatment. Either the spotlight or IR gear would look cool though. Here are some pics of the Pattons with the spotlight and some of the Sniperscope/Snooperscope.
This one shows the mounting brackets.
Sniperscope on M3 carbine:
Sniperscope on T3 carbine:
Snooperscope:
The only easy day was yesterday - U.S. Navy Seals