Pretty much what I'm looking for is a LWJGL skeleton Applet so that I can just tack stuff onto it as wanted.
The default starting point is usually the the
GearsApplet. Its pretty much the same as a normal applet except note how the canvas addNotify() and removeNotify() methods are used to create/destroy the Display and that the game and loop is run in another thread (from the applet). This is mostly done to make sure the canvas is ready before the display is created and if it does blow up for some reason, won't take the browser with it

(at least on plugin1). Other then that the Display and LWJGL is pretty much used as a how you use a normal LWJGL native Display.
Iv been fiddling alot with the LWGJL AppletLoader. And am going to write a tutorial on "Getting the most out of your LWJGL Applet"
nice, looking forward to it.