Filling an object drawn with lines and circles

I'm a pretty basic user; however, I just finished drawing a hand (with index finger pointing upward). I used a series of line, arcs, and chamfers to create the hand. Now, I want to apply a uniform fill to this thing. I've tried joining the nodes using the shape tool, but that works only so far, but not for the whole drawing. I've tried combining the objects, even welding the objects. What do I need to do to make this drawing something that can be filled? Is there a tutorial out there on this, by chance?