I think you said the chain had to move, so I'm assuming 1 million laser cut buts of .8mm styrene and a whole lot of 1mm plastic rod. if this is the case, yer, you don't need a chain.
Outer plates on the left, rollers in the middle, inner plates on the right.
This photo is just the spares left over after completing it. There were loads of these to start with. Every so often one goes pinging out of your tweezers into oblivion. When this happens, it is not worth looking for it, so you simply make loads more than are needed.
The rods are superglued into the outer plates, the other plates and rollers are threaded on. Cutting the end of the rod into a point makes this considerably easier.
Snug them all together and then cut the rod flush with the outer plate. A tiny drop of superglue on the end of the rod holds everything together. The glue MUST NOT get through the gap and onto the inner plate or the whole link is ruined.
Dry fit of chain and mechs to check length and line. Two or three more links to go and we're done.
The front mech is held on with a toothpick and the rear hanger is just slid over the rear axle. It is much easier to thread the chain thrugh the mechs when they are not attached to the frame.
All that's left now is a new box to put it in once it's all stuck together.
I did wonder about the chain, thought you might have a fiendish solution like using a chain off a rear internal gear hub etc. but I guess that would definitely be cheating