Spaceship Endurance?

[TheBaron]

Hi everyone,

I'm relatively new to KSP. I've been playing for several months but I haven't really made an advanced spacecraft before. Most of the time i just build jets or other random vehicles, and I've recently been working on a satellite communications network.

I've been spending most of my free time for the last week or so building a prototype for the Spaceship Endurance from Interstellar. I'm well aware of the mod that allows you to get a realistic model for it, but I've been trying to build my own out of stock parts. As far as I've seen, nobody has made a photo-accurate Endurance without using mods. I plan on using it as a sort of gateway system to construct bases on other planets, where I could change which modules I wanted for each mission. I also plan on recreating movie scenes, like the docking scene, Lazarus Mission rescues, or the black hole gravity assist, but instead with Kerbol. I found that if I go for a long range mission with fuel modules instead of payload modules, I can get my burn time to well over three and a half hours.

I've been building the engine modules using NERVs, and I sent one to space, but other than that, its been grounded. I'm asking if anyone has any advice for me in the construction of my station. I'm planning on launching it realistically; one module at a time, not some ultra-heavy misshapen rocket that carries it all up at once.

If anyone has any advice about scale, engines, construction, assembly, or anything else, please help me.

Thanks