I'm trying to model details on the front of an old-fashioned radio, specifically the speaker vents and dial. The issue is I don't know how best to cut these out. The usual method I would use is to add edge-loops and trace the outline of the desired cut-out (from the reference) but this method is both slow and not all that accurate. It also becomes complicated when there are two cut-outs adjacent to each other so the polygons become an increasingly confusing mess of distorted tris and quads.
I also tried the Boolean approach (Difference mode) but again I'd need to clean up all the ngons created by this resulting in the spider-web edges effect. What is the most efficient way to achieve this goal? I get variants of this scenario a lot such as the shapes on top of a beer can or arched windows. Is there a faster route that I'm not aware of?
Thanks