Hide variant images in a Stacked Product Gallery but allow them to show when selected.

I have some products with over 70 possible variations. 
I'm wondering if it's possible to have a stacked gallery that only displays a few "select" images with the rest of the images hidden. When the customer selects their desired variants the relevant image is displayed?

I know the obvious choice is to use a carousel gallery but I like the look of the stacked gallery.

I am also struggling to achieve this same task. I want 3 or 4 general images to always be available in the thumbnail stack, and the main image to change to a specific variant image when that variant is selected with dropdown menus.