So I bought an inexpensive cannister of wood putty and a putty knife (a cheap-o 89 cent plastic thingy) and got to work on puttying the holes in my dalek's skirt.
I got the majority of the panels filled with the putty and they came out ok. When they dried they were fairly strong, but I do think I'm gonna have to place some kind of shielder onto it to make it that much sturdier.
The holes filled in quite nicely an you can barely tell that any opening was there. Oooh... so exciting!
As for the panels that I didn't putty today, I made them stronger by putting a bead of liquid nails into the cracks and either just let them dry or (for the one panel shown) squose them together with duct tape and let that dry and set overnight. Tonight when i'm finished sanding parts of the dalek, i'll fill in those last openings with the putty and let that dry overnight and sand more the next day.
I'm really pleased with the way this is coming out. I hope to work on the fender this weekend.