Selective Impression

Selective Impression: The art of constructing a model building using only a hastily taken photograph as source material.

Usage: Since Madwood's client provided just a few photos taken from the backseat of a moving car as reference material, selective impression was the only tool left for cobbling together a reasonable model.

Source: The term was first coined by George Franke in Modeling Sycamore Feeds that appeared in the October 1982 issue of Railroad Model Craftsman. Mr. Franke notes I was behind schedule when I took the pictures so I neglected to take any measurements. He also elaborates that the prototype wasn't served by rail so he left off a small shed to accommodate boxcars, put the office on the first floor, and shortened the storage building among other adjustments that suited his model railroad's needs. Selective impression is not for creating exact replicas of buildings, but is for capturing what caught your attention, and making appropriate adjustments to fit your layout's world. Selective impression is not to be confused with either selective compression or selective staging.

from The Dictionary of Non-Existent Model Railroad Terms, 2nd ed., 1999.