"Just wondering if anyone has had success getting a "realistic" guitar sound doing something similar to what I'm trying?"
To answer the above question "NO!" and no matter how hard you try you probably won't either. Not unless you are ready to spend big bucks on a synthesizer. Even then, probably would not convince most people that it is a real Twangy lead guitar.
However, if you use a midi wind synth, breath controller or have a top of the line hardware synth and are really, really good with a mod wheel you might get close.
I like lambada's idea, write it out in midi along with the rest of your song, post it up on soundcloud for us to here. Some of us might record the part for you, email it to you, you can import it to a track in your DAW and mute the midi track you made. If you do this you should post the entire song with count in and intro bars and all. That will make the recorded guitar track line up easily once you get it back.

Does the noise in your head bother me ?