I have some Bubinga that looks a little cigarish. You could also use just the leaves.
Cut a cigar lengthwise with a razor blade. Carefully dump the insides into the trash / pipe tobacco pouch / fireplace, etc. etc. Cut the formed part of the cigar off and discard. then CA glue the cigar casing to the tube from underneath. Then trim up the ends and coat with lots of CA. OR... you could layer the leaves so it doesnt take as much CA for the finish. The only bad part to that way is that the leaves will look a bit darker.
As a cigar smoker myself, I think it would impact me more if the overlap on the band, and the edges of the band could be felt. Of course, as a penmaker, You want to make the surface completely free of all defects and imperfections, but as a replica of a cigar, i personally, would like it more if you could feel the band.
I'm not really familiar with the panache kit, but if it has no visible metal around the center, or at least limited metal, then it would look really really cool! I know some of the custom kitless work shown here has no visible metal at the center, but that would be alot of work for a freebie pen... Unless the bonus was big enough!!! lol