Thursday 13 August 2015

The Danish Warship Churprindsen

The Churprindsen.

About a year ago fellow club member Mark and I decided to build a collection of Danish and Swedish warships for the Scanian War, using the excellent pewter cast 1:1200 models from Langton. The Scanian War is interesting not only on in terms of the large and bloody land battles, but also at sea where the large Danish and Swedish navies had four mayor sea battles, with plenty of drama and fierce fighting to base good scenarios on.

The Danish and Swedish navies slugging it out 
at the battle of Køge Bugt, 1677.

We recently tried out some new rules that Mark had found for us – see the AAR here, and decided it was time to pick up the project again by painting up more of the beautiful Langton ships. Having already done the Christianus Quintus, the flagship of Nils Juel (my favorite Danish Admiral) at the Battle of Køge Bugt, I decided to paint up his earlier flagship, Churprindsen, from which he commanded during the two sea battles the year before in 1676.


Churprindsen

For anyone who has been to Copenhagen, the harbor channels of Christianshavn and the area around the impressive new Opera will be familiar. In the 1600s this area was a bustling naval yard, with an impressive turn out rate of large warships to ensure Danish naval security in Øresund strait. 

Another view at the model.
Rigging these small models is a work of patience, 
but very rewarding to the look of the finished model.


In the 1660s the building master, Mathias Hermandsen, was charges with constructing 5 new and quite sizable warships, one of them was Churprindsen.  Construction was finished 1664, and the 146 ft long ship was launched with 72 guns, most of them 18 pounders. She carried a crew of around 380 men, most of them recruited through the many capable sailor at the naval docks in Copenhagen.


The Royal Danish shipyards at Holmen, Copenhagen.
The model can be viewed at the Naval Museum in Copenhagen.


Churprindsen would see action in all the four mayor sea battles of the Scanian War:

Battle of Bornholm 25-26th May 1676 (The flagship of Nils Juel)

Battle of Öland 1st June 1676 (The flagship of Nils Juel)

Battle of Møn 31st May – 1st June 1677

Battle of Bøge Bugt 1- 2 July 1677

Close quarter firefights were devastating to hull and crew.

At the Battle of Öland Christianus Quintus and Churprindsen would surround the Swedish warship “Svärdet”, flagship of admiral Uggla, and force him to strike flag and surrender after an intense fire duel. Unfortunately the price ship never made at back to Copenhagen, since a Dutch (allies of the Danes) fireship drifted up and set the Svärdet ablaze, causing it to blow up with Uggla and most of its 650-man crew.

A view of the colorful and decorative stern.

Churprindsen went on to serve the Royal Danish navy until 1710, where she was laid out as target practice for the artillery at the harbor forts in Copenhagen.

Thank you very much for reading!

34 comments:

  1. Very impressive matey ! I hope I will get a chanse to participate in one of your games at the club.

    Best regards Michael

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    1. Thanks Michael, hope so too - the rules Mark found were actually really easy to learn, and offered some interesting sailing and shooting!

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  2. Fantastic painting on what I imagine is a rather small model!

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    1. Thanks Steve, and yes the 1:1200 range does present some interesting challenges especially on the smaller ships with 48-60 guns, but they are very well sculpted and the casting is clear so you get all the help imaginable.

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  3. Wow this is a great looking ship! Another great job! I love the crosses you added to the gun ports.
    See you next week for battle!!!!

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    1. Thanks Mark - really looking forward to our next game. The Danish navy is now adding Christian IV as well, we're good for a game with 3 ships a side. Should be great fun!

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  4. Thats a very finely painted ship indeed, and all ready for combat on the high seas!

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    1. Cheers Chris, she will get her baptism of fire on Wednesday, when she will face Mark's growing Swedish navy. Look out for the AAR on his blog!

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  5. Very handsome vessel. Such magnificent detailing on such a small ship. My one and only attempt on a Langston ship was not rendered nearly so brilliantly.

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    1. Thanks Jon, I've found fiddling with the small details like rigging and such a pleasing change from painting 28s. I'm aiming at painting up 9 Danish ships in total, which should be a good sized force for a 2 or 4 player game.

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  6. Amazing!
    Really like this one, I almost want to get me some of my own, but only almost ;) Still have enough to paint as it is now...

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    1. Thank you Ulf, and I must admire your discipline here - I'm way to easily corrupted and turned on to new projects. But one thing is painting, another is gaming with them, and you should join us for a game. I'll drop you an invite when we've grown the two navies a bit more!

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  7. Just amazing work. Very nicely done!

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    1. Cheers Jason, thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment!

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  8. Beautiful, truly beautiful...

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    1. Merci Phil! Its a wonderful period in naval history and perhaps one of the few bright spots in Danish military history with the naval hero Nils Juel at the center of the success.

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  9. Stunning work Sören, very nice indeed!

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    1. Thanks Stephen, as a Dane one is rather limited in terms of big bright victories on the battlefields of history, but that Nils Juel was a real bad ass - and he's from Jutland ;0)

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  11. Ohhh... impressive work. Nice blogpost, lots of nice pictures and the diorama from the museum is really nice.

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    1. Thanks Engel, yeah the Royal Danish Navy Museum is well worth a visit if you're ever in Copenhagen. Besides the model of the shipbuilding area they also have a large model of the Battle of Køge Bugt, which is one of the most famous Danish naval victories.

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    1. Thank you very much Jay! I must give credit to the fantastic Langton model too, and the plastic based with waves pre-sculpted, adding a lot to the finished result.

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  13. Another beautifully painted model, Soren. Langton sculpts are the best. The museum's displays must be very inspirational too.

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    1. Thanks Dean - agreed, Langton is King of the Seas! If you're ever in Copenhagen, the Royal Navy Museum is a must-see, not kidding, amazing museum for the entire family.

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  14. Absolutely stunning. Wonderful work.

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    1. Cheers Curt, really appreciate the kind words and the visit :0)

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  15. Absolutely stunning. Wonderful work.

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  16. Absolutely stunning. Wonderful work.

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  17. Damn I almost missed this little beauty! Well done Sören. The painting is ace as we came to expect from you but the rigging really is the icing on the cake... not to forget the great basing. It almost looks like she's really under full sails.

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    1. Well, nice comments like that are always welcome :0) yeah, I can really recommend the resin sea bases from Langton to anyone doing 1:1200 ships, they add a lot to the visual finish of the model I think. Thanks for dropping by M!

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  18. Given, I am a bit late to the Party. As I am currently raising a Danish Fleet myself I stumbled upon the Question about how to differentiate the Squadrons? Did they have Pennants of different Color?

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