Hello all! Been lurking for a long while drooling over everyone's work! After reading SS : Steel Storm,I'm trying to build my first diorama and need help.I'm wanting to do a Panzer iv ausf. j on a muddy road heading into a town for support/backup with a few reinforcement troops thrown together following behind! I know they should be figures from around '44 and up.Since it's not an actual fight, I'm not sure which ones to get or how to paint, eg. black,gray,camouflage,or ? Any help in the right direction is much appreciated!

P.S - I want it to take place in spring or summer,since my wife bought me all deep green coverage(my fault,I know.. lol)

Being late in the war you have the advantage of chaos. The Germans were cobbeling together units from whereever they could get them. You'd see various uni's from Standard Gray's to overcoats to short splinter coats etc.
For spring you'll want to keep them away from heavy winter coats and such, maybe include a coat on the panzer (taken off and hung up).

Verlinden and Warrior and CD all have various AM figure kits. Dragon should also.

Osprey has a whole series of books on military uniforms called the Men at Arms series, and each includes several pages of color figure drawings in the center depicting the selected uniforms. "The Waffen-SS (Men at Arms Series, 34)" by Martin Windrow is an excellent overview of the subject.
There is also a useful title called "Waffen-SS Camouflage Uniforms And Post-war Derivatives (Europa Militaria Series)," by Daniel Peterson, which features color photographs of live models wearing period uniforms with full equipment. This is helpful in that you can see the actual range of colors, including the variations seen on different batches of clothing.
Of course, with all such books, one must allow for inevitable limitations in reproducing correct colors. Still these will get you into the ballpark at least.
These are available from Amazon.com

Check out figures from Alpine and TANK

Thanks guys for the replies! I've been studying WWII for a little while.The Germans just had so many ranks/divisions and with those different uniforms that it gets a little confusing! I've found a bunch of figures on great models I plan to get. I'm going to look into those books also,hopefully they will help sort out my confusion! Now to figure out the layout for this diorama!
Thanks again!

Dan