I'm with you, Schweinhund. There's far too much emphasis put upon getting everything exactly correct and not enough put upon enjoying yourself while also developing your skills.

So, Carsenault, dive in and have fun. If memory serves, the early Jagdpanthers had a waffle-pattern zimmerit coating factory applied to them so the needle method would work if you don't want to shell out for stamps. I've seen good results achieved by pushing down the ridges made by the needles with some old t-shirt material - this imparts a bit of uniform surface texture to the zimmerit. Just make a few practice runs on  some scrap plastic first. There are a few different "official" waffle patterns so who can say which is perfect...