After three different lander designs, four different versions of the total ship, and about five or six tries and landings, I finally made it home back to Kerbin after landing on Duna.

Of course I forgot to take a screen shot of my landing this last time...

**Main lessons learned:** 

1. For your lander and transfer craft, always pack more DV than you think you need after following the DV maps. Too many of my earlier tries failed due to my transfer stage not having enough fuel. My lander was also too tight so my last version has about 1000dV more fuel than before.
2. Interplanetary transfers are hard to do manually. I ended up downloading Mech Jeb and learning to use it about half way through my attempts.
3. Realizing that even Mech Jeb can't nail it perfectly, you need to figure out how to get captured in a non polar or not too far away orbit, so trying some mid flight adjustments is the key to success. All it takes is 3-7 m/s of adjustment while in flight between Kerbin and Duna in order to get an exactly positioned as you'd like periapsis. 
4. Learning point number 3 is what allows you to not have to pack as much extra DV in the first place. When you don't have to bring a polar 30million km encounter into a proper orbit, you save SO much DV in your subsequent adjustments it's not even funny. That 3-7 m/s of adjustment mid flight can save you easily 1000 dV in orbital adjustment and lander rendezvous cost. It's also what allows you to position your return to Kerbin Periapsis at 30km altitude perfectly for aerobraking.

  
**Ship Specs:**

Lander

* 3387 Vacuum DV
* 50 parts
* 15.8t
* 4 twitch (for getting around heat shield in order to do initial de-orbit which was not needed)
* 1 Terrier

Transfer Craft

* 4267 Vacuum DV
* 45 parts
* 72t
* 3 Poodle

Whole craft / Booster

* 7369 Vacuum DV / 3328 Vacuum DV
* 107 parts
* 500.4t
* 5 Mainsail

  
**Final Thoughts:**

Seriously recommend practicing new things in sandbox before doing it in Career. I left my main game and just did multiple sandbox attempts to figure it out. Now that I understand it properly, I feel comfortable sending my original career Jeb off on a real Duna mission now.

Finally had a successful Duna return mission. Lessons learned for fellow newbies