Last night I finally got around to doing tests. I originally made this guy with packing tape, then decided I didn't want him translucent so tried spray filler paint and the tape just looked awful and that's when I got the idea for the plasticmache.
The areas with the paper soaked in polycrylic are a lot smoother than the tape. Perhaps not as smooth as I'd really like but this is just the first pass. If I started from scratch with the paper it would obviously be better but I'd rather just experiment on this for now. Not happy with the teeth at all so those will be cut off and replaced with smooth on air epoxy putty. I am also going to add some forhead ridges and other details with that stuff before proceeding with another layer of paper.
It feels fantastic, like actual plastic! It really does and it's so light. Really the paper and dried poly is adding almost no weight. This is not the cheapest solution, but so far I am really liking the results and knowing that once it's all painted it will be very water resistant makes me happy.
*EDIT* Looking at the picture when I cut the teeth off I am going to enlarge the mouth in both width and length. He has too much chin! I also need to figure out how I am going to do his lower half at some point.