Scratchbuilding a Nova grille

Screen wire is pretty close if you don't mind the less than 3D "egg carton" look.  At 1/24th scale it would be hardly noticeable.  It depends on how particular you are.  I have noticed screen wire comes in different sized and proportioned squares and rectangles, so check around.

Just a suggestion.

For an eggcrate structure, you can use strips of styrene, and cut halfway through the horizontal members, then halfway through the verticals from the other side.  When finished and glued, prime and airbrush with Alclad chrome or polished aluminum

One quick and dirty method that doesn't look super, but works in some cases, is to get a silver gel roller pen.  Cut a piece of styrene to fit the opening, and rule in the lines with the silver pen over the flat black styrene. Then glue in place.

Thanks for the responses, guys.  I actually had started on the styrene strip method but wasn't too happy with the way it was progressing, and I had wondered about something like the screenwire, too.  Thought maybe I was barking up the wrong tree with these ideas, but since you guys mentioned essentially the same things I feel a little better about it.  I may pursue these directions with a bit more vigor and see what I come up with.  Thanks for the input!

To me the secret of doing things like an eggcrate is making jigs.  You need a cutting jig to make all the grooves identical between pieces.  You may also need a jig/fixture for gluing the thing together if it doesn't hold itself together.

Try starting with the grille from the Revell '69 Chevy Nova COPO

http://web.ipmsusa3.org/sites/default/files/imagecache/review_cover_full/reviews/69-chevrolet-nova-copo/novaboxart.jpeg

    I have the perfect solution for you . Go to your LHS and hit the WALTHERS catalogue or model railroad section. there are " O " scale boxcar roof walkways that will work perfectly. That,s what I use . I cross many boundaries when building to help keep the look right.

     I use railroad car barge deck hatches on my ships for instance , in " H.O. " scale and they look perfect . Try it , you won,t be dissappointed .

Oh yeah!

Great advice.

I forgot about that material  

Sounds quite promising.  Small hurdle, though.  We don't have a LHS around here.  I've started doing some searching on the 'net for "O" scale roofwalk material but so far haven't found much.  Would at least like to see what this product looks like, maybe get some approximate measurements of the grid.  Thanks for the tip!!