Almost a year ago I bought two sets of Warriors of Dale and their Captain. I like to have a scenario in my mind when I paint and use the figures but didn't quite know what to do with them. I decided to go somewhat with the description of what GW said, protecting their homeland and being seen on ships. With that in mind, I decided to build a Lake Town barge to ferry the Warriors of Dale along the Long Lake to patrol for orcs. Since GW/Forge World is releasing their Lake Town House soon, I thought I better get busy and try building the barge. Luckily I have a hobby show nearby that sells bass wood cheap as I went through a lot of it learning how to build my barge.
I started out using cardboard to get the size I wanted - it had to hold at least 15 figures (bargeman plus Thorin's Company or a warband of Dale). I then build a dock to get the height of the barge right. The dock I built was one long abandoned on the River Running below Dale.
I went through several iterations of the barge base and framework and bought some hobby size clamps and a proper tool to bend the wood around before I got it where I am happy with it.
Every plank is an individual size piece of bass wood. Might have over done it with the one stain but it is a working barge...
The bargeman is the spearman from the Lake Town militia and the figure head is a seahorse charm. Still have to do some work on the tiller/rudder and need to size out the mast/sail.
With Thorin's Company aboard:
A Dale patrol landing:
The Master of Lake Town felt he could get rid of all the trouble makers at once so sent Bard to deliver Thorin's Company up the Long River where they would be met by Bolg:
What is a lake town barge without barrels of "fish" to be counted...