1:24 Huey engine cowl mesh - substitute materials for scratchbuilding

I thought I would throw this question out into the ether as the amount of knowledge on this forum is huge.

I have cutout the mesh grill from my 1:24th scale huey engine cowl in order to replace it with realistic metal mesh, however having done so have found out that to buy the stuff from manufacturers is massively expensive.

I only need about 1 square inch of the stuff!

I did think about buying some off the shelfsieve or something, but the mesh I need is going to be really fine (100/inch). I hear that scale train modelling manufacturers may have some for sale in small quantities, but havent found a decent supplier.

Any ideas?

Thanks Doug