Heartened by the completion of my Five Armies project, I'm now embarking on another Middle-earth scheme: the Battle of the Pelennor Fields in 15mm (using Hordes of the Things or perhaps DBF - or both for different games, perhaps).
The Pelennor is an obvious choice for a big battle from Tolkien's works. It has a pleasing variety of troop types on both sides, with notably more varied forces of evil than some other battles, in that there are plenty of diverse human troop types alongside the orcs, trolls and Ringwraiths, along with some that could be interpreted as either wholly or partially human (the "men like half-trolls", who are later referred to simply as "troll-men"). And there are lots of varied goodies too, with plenty of scope for characterful leaders, from Gandalf to Forlong the Fat.
And the Pelennor also has nice historical echoes, including the Cautalanian Fields (aka the Battle of Chalons) and various sieges of Constantinople.
Alas, while 15mm is great for affordable historical analogues for Middle-earth troop types, it largely precludes the kitbashing of orcs, which was one of the great joys of the Five Armies project. But it does open up the possibility of kitbashing some trolls.
Most obviously, the great battering ram Grond is wielded by trolls. And trolls are mentioned in the rout of the Witch-king's army too, if I remember correctly.
What do Tolkien's trolls look like? Well, the consistent theme - from JRRT's own illustrations for The Hobbit to the cave troll in Moria to the hill trolls at the Morannon (who must be Olog-hai) - is that they're scaly. To that end, I kitbashed one using a Frostgrave snakeman body and various dwarf and goblin parts. I'm quite pleased with how he looks - a fairly original take on a much-depicted monster - and he's bang on scale with 15mm figures (Tolkien indicates that trolls were around 12' tall):
