A pity it didn't work out exactly as you wanted, George @gblair
It was however a learningful exercise, I think you were really on the edge of the limitations.
Your fresh scratchbuild seat does look great, as does the modified one.
I can imagine having a grandparent day is amazing, all those children being enthusiastic to have their grandparents visiting their school.

This seat situation has really been bothering me and has caused me to jump feet first into the rabbit hole. I couldn't get the resin seats I scaled down from files for an RC T-6. The seat printed fine, but was too thin and fragile to use. I used the kit seats as a basis for more accurate seats that I created with plastic strip and wire. Although they looked acceptable, I was still bothered that I couldn't get the resin seats to work. I decided to try designing my own using a very simple design program called TinkerCad. How hard could it be? :o0

TinkerCad is a very simple free online design program for creating your own printable creations. Over the course of 3 days, and several attempts at printing, I finally got a seat that I think will work. In the meantime, I found a photo of the seats in an SNJ in the National Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola, Florida. My seat matches fairly well. I am getting some horizontal lines in the printed resin, which I think I can eliminate using different printer settings.

I have also been working on the resin replacement engine. On my last model, I found adding the pushrods to be very frustrating. I figured out a method this time that really simplified the process. There were small indentations in the crankshaft that marked the location for the bottom of each pushrod. I used a drill bit to drill a small hole from the top of the crankcase down into the center of the engine. Thanks to these holes, I didn't need to be so accurate measuring the length of each piece of wire. I simply took each piece of wire and pushed them down into the hole, then pulled them up until they were snug against their place in each rocker arm. I brushed a little thin CA onto the base of each pushrod, and I was done. I plan to add some sparkplug wires after I paint the majority of the engine.

That's about it for now. Hopefully some more tomorrow. Cheers.

Thanks, John (@johnb). The holes were easy to drill and saved me a lot of time I would have spent cutting and fitting the brass pushrods. So I am marking this in the "win" column.

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten). I hope to get this kit moving a little faster now that the seats are starting to fall into place.

Thanks, Eric (@eb801). Rabbit holes are cool as long as I can still see light at the end of the tunnel (or hole). We have one granddaughter (3 YO). We go to my daughter's and son-in-law's house every Sunday and play board games and have lunch, but there is always a lot of PawPaw time. Aren't they fun?

I still have 3 museums on my bucket list: NNAM, National Museum of the USAF (I was last there in the mid-1970s), and the Imperial War Museum (+ others) in England. :o)

George R Blair Jr (@gblair)
These newest seats look very nice. It looks as if you are learning a lot about your printer, which is really cool, and will open up even more doors for future building. Who knows ? You might someday be printing your own engines too.

I agree, Monogram had the neatest figures in their kits. Mechanics holding wrenches, pilots and other crew members, the list goes on. I'm surprised your instructor isn't wearing a crushed 100 mission "flying saucer" hat...as all of the cool pilots did... at least on TV anyhow.
My dear old Dad used to call the Class A dress uniform headgear that... Flying saucer because of the shape.

Looking very good. The seat on the left looks better with the smaller cross bar. The engine looks great with the new pushrods. That's a great way to install them.

Good progress with the seats and nicely painted figure, my friend @gblair!

Thanks, Spiros (@fiveten) and Spiros (@fiveten). This kit is moving so slowly that I thought the kit parts were getting lonely, so I painted them a companion.