Scratch-built 1/32 Dornier Do J Wal 'N25': Amundsen & Ellsworth 1925
By Kent Karlsen
Building the Dornier Do J 'Wal' N25
In 1925 Roald Amundsen attempted to fly to the North Pole with five others in two aircraft, the N24 and the N25. They started from Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard, on 21 May 1925 and flew side by side to 87°43' N, where they landed on leads in the drift ice after more than eight hours in the air. N24 had been damaged on take-off and it was now obvious that the plane could not be flown again. The six men struggled for 3½ weeks to create a take-off strip on the drift ice. On 15 June Hjalmar Riiser-Larsen managed to get N25 into the air with all six men on board. They landed off the north coast of Svalbard and were able to hitch a ride back to Ny-Ålesund with a small ship which was in the area by chance. There were huge celebrations when the men returned to Oslo.
The 'Wal' is one of the aircraft which has always been a special plane for me. In 2015 I bought a book by M. Michiel van der Mey, “Dornier Wal - a light coming over The Sea" with plans of the aircraft. And right away I started working on the basis for the fuselage. But as it always is with these kinds of projects, it came to a standstill.
Over the years I never abandoned the thought of the build and years later I managed to get the wings done, because I didn't want to proceed if the wings didn't work out. I was very lucky when in 2021 the Dornier Museum in Friedrichshafen completed a 1:1 Replica of 'N25'. I do not think that I would have been able to finish the model if it wasn't for the photos of the Replica in the Museum. The last 3-4 months of 2023 I've been working continuously because of the deadline I had made for myself, the 100-year anniversary of the Polar flight by Amundsen & Ellsworth in May-June 1925.
All of the parts are made by hand except for the Wingnut Wing Rolls-Royce Eagle engines left over from the Aeromarine build. But it has been a 'tour de force' of different methods of making parts for 'N25' - Styrene sheets and profiles, vacuum forming, making masters and casting copies in resin, working with aluminum sheets, reinforcing parts with brass rods, etc.
The Dornier Do Wal wasn't a small plane, the model has a wingspan of nearly 69 cm's and a length of 54 cm's.
Enjoy!
Update July 16, 2026:
The Wal is now part of a vignette of the 1925 Amundsen Ellsworth Polar Expedition with crew, skis, equipment, collapsible boat, etc.
After I finished the build of the 'Wal' I was contacted by the Roald Amundsen Museum 'Uranienborg' in Oslo. I was asked if it would be possible to have the Scale Model of the Amundsen Wal in the Museum for their 100th anniversary exhibition of the Amundsen Ellsworth Expedition in 1925. I was very honored by this request and I agreed to have the Model on display in their new exhibition.
I decided to attend the IPMS Norway event 'SKALA' in April 2025 at Gardermoen Aviation Museum Oslo before letting the Museum have the Model on display. The Dornier Do Wal Vignette was awarded 'Best model with a Norwegian topic' and the 'Aviation History Award 2025' (Chris Meddings was attending too!).
After the IPMS SKALA fantastic event was over, the 'Wal' was handed over to the Amundsen Museum and they even had a display case made for the Model at the new exhibition. I feel like this is where the model of The Amundsen Wal belongs and I have told them to keep the model, at least for now...
I haven't got around to updating some of my projects for a year. After this tour de force, I have had trouble finding out what to do next...
So maybe it is time to play a little 'catch up' on some of the builds... Cheers!
© Kent Karlsen 2025/2026
This article was published on Friday, January 10 2025; Last modified on Friday, July 17 2026