So does the mesh look close to what you mentioned or are we still sure to stay away from pantyhose?
That mesh looks OK. Most of the guys around here that use mesh use what looks like old pantyhose stolen from the wife. I use a piece of old iridescent purple woven mesh stolen from a kid's craft project. My comment in the PM was just about the difficulty of holding it on with an O-ring -- not it's suitability once it's on (and no, I did not state that well in the PM, I'm sure).
The tuning goal is to effectively close up the venturi.
Anything that does that is OK, as long as it doesn't cause other Bad Things to happen (i.e., wood shims would work, but might shake loose, RC carbs are infinitely adjustable, but unless the drum to body fit is superlative they can leak in unexpected ways, etc., etc.).
An LA 46 wants to run at something over 10,000rpm in the air.
Just as a point of interest, I launch between 9600 and 9800 RPM, depending on the plane and the prop. IIRC, from measurements taken in the air, this turns into >10000 in the air.