WHO IS THIS GUY?

At the age of five, Joe Porter began a lifetime love affair with miniatures and scale models.                     
                                                                  Born to build

He served for six years in the United States Army, completing Airborne, Air Assault, and sniper courses as well as U.S. Navy Amphibious Warfare School. He held several line infantry, operations, and intelligence roles in the 2nd Ranger Battalion, 101st Airborne Division, and Berlin Brigade. During his tour of duty in Berlin, he was selected to guard Nazi henchman Rudolf Hess at Spandau Prison. He was appointed a Permanent Trustee of the Checkpoint Charlie Chapter of the Non-Commissioned Officers Association (NCOA), and was also named Berlin Brigade NCO of the Year.

Never before published photo, taken in the jungles of Borneo

Over the last sixteen years he has become a widely known personality in the scale modeling community. As president of the Houston chapter of IPMS, he led the club to National Chapter of the Year honors in 1994. From 1995-99, he was Graphics Manager and then Vice President of The VLS Corporation, and served as editor of Verlinden Modeling Magazine. He worked as Category Manager of the Plastics Division at Horizon Hobby Distributors from 1999-2000.

                                       1:1 scale

Joe won his first modeling competition in 1976. In 1999 he won the TamiyaCon Director's Choice Award and a trip to Japan, and his winning entry was featured in the centerfold of the 2000 Tamiya Catalog. Joe has painted box art prototypes for Revell-Monogram, Verlinden, Jaguar, Yanks, Warriors, Legends & Lore, Custom Dioramics, Fatman, Enigma, Jimmy Flintstone, and Dr. Flintbone. In addition to work featured in manufacturer's catalogs, his models and articles have appeared in Military Miniatures in Review, Military Modelling (England), Historical Miniature, FineScale Modeler, Modeler's Resource, Verlinden Modeling Magazine, Master Hobby Magazine (Hong Kong), Osprey Military Journal (England), Kitbuilders, and Model Graphix (Japan).

Joe giving a painting seminar at The MMSI Chicago Show, 2002

Joe also works as the North American Editor for Figure International Magazine (Spain). In 2001 Ampersand Publishing released Joe's first book, Modeler's Guide to the Kubelwagen. His work appears in ads for Badger Air-Brush and Aves Apoxie-Sculpt, and his airbrushing video for Badger will be released in 2004. Joe's new “Tips on Building Dioramas” series for Revell-Monogram was launched in February 2003, with the Wright Flyer kit.




Joe Porter became a full-time artist in 2000 and formed Cosmic Bovine Studios. His work is found in private collections around the world.