Noticeably FAT

If I was going to do it, I would build the craft as I wanted it to be in orbit, launch it so it's sitting on the launchpad, then in the persistence file swap the orbital parameters for the two ships. BACK UP THE PERSISTENCE FILE BEFORE YOU TRY THIS! All it takes is a copy/paste so you have a copy of the file, if anything gets messed up you can always delete the one you edited and rename the copy.

Whell, I finally reached the limit of my poor old laptop on that last lift, the game kept crashing. That was the incentive I needed to finally go get a new one (the mission clock is supposed to be green? Who knew!). There was still some wonkiness with that ship, so it's been scrapped and is being rebuilt. So, now that all that is gone I have an opportunity to redesign a few parts. Mostly I'm concerned about the ISA GPS unit not working right, I really wanted that on my rovers. Is there a decent replacement for that mod that is working in this version?

It sounds like your problem isn't with the gravity turn, but with circularization (or rather the lack of). The gravity turn isn't strictly speaking necessary, it's just the most efficient way to increase your horizontal velocity. A single big burn cannot get you into orbit. You need to stop burning once your apoapsis (highest point in your orbit) is where you want it (either watch the map view, or get a mod that indicates orbital information), then once you hit that point you need to burn again towards orbital prograde (the direction that will increase your orbital velocity) until your periapsis is as high as you want it.

That's why I use it. Or more specifically, I use it on the stuff that has become trivial. I rarely do a manual ascent/circularization anymore, it's just not that entertaining to me. Same for interplanetary burns, I'll set up the maneuver myself to get what I want, then let MJ handle it from there. There's so much fun stuff to do in the game, so I use MJ to fast-forward through the boring parts.

I think my favorite part of that one is the alt text. No jokes, just a description of the image. Which for him, is a joke in itself.

For the future, I've had decent luck with building a ship as I want it in orbit, sending it to the launchpad, then in the persistence file swapping in the orbital parameters from the bad ship into the good ship on the pad. It sounds like it worked out for you, but I haven't had good luck trying to swap/remove individual parts.

It isn't. Ok, that could just be due to my laggy laptop.

As I type this, MechJeb is orbiting the last three science probes for my Jool mission. It was going to be one large mission, but I'm splitting it up into three or more. The fuel drop pods/extra fuel tank are currently orbiting Jool, the habitat/science lab/two rovers/six probes are going to be sent in one mission and are currently under construction and will hopefully be on their way tonight, the lander/crew transfer and return vehicle(for getting to/around/from the Jool system)/possible extra fuel mission is in the planning phase.

So I don't need to be adding ASAS to all my ships anymore? That's what I get for leaving for six months then hopping back in with no research.

"My stuff isn't floating like I want it." "Have you tried adding more large steel structures to the bottom?" "Thanks, that worked!" I love KSP.

Quite often with KSP "Can" and "Have any desire to do it" are often not the same thing.

I once did an IVA only (and a map view only after that) launch, rendezvous and dock just to see if I could, but I don't really find it as fun.

I have an AS in Arch. Eng., which as it turns out is basically an degree to be a draftsman (what I did), or move on to other architectural related courses. I don't know if you can edit your poll, but it's missing anything related to architecture, which is a pretty large chunk to be missing.

I use MechJeb so I can wander off and do other manly things, like drink beer, and watch Spongebob, and frequent visits the little kerbal's room as a result of drinking beer while playing KSP and watching Spongebob.

I've made a couple really nice and somewhat efficient ships in the past, but after a several month (and several version) hiatus, I'm back to my old habit of half-assing a design that might work for what I want to do, then throwing parts at it until it works. It's an inefficient and ugly strategy, but it is entertaining, which I'm fairly certain is the point of the game.