A digital solder gun with a properly sized tip and a magnifying glass with helping hands (flexible clips) helps immensely. I had to hand solder a surface mount resistor that looked about the size of the tip of a pencil. It wasn’t pretty but I got it done.
Welcome to what Republicans really wanted instead of Trump. Trump is a buffoon, he says the quiet part out loud, and is more of a millstone around the party’s neck. But if they could get a Vance - someone who has zero ethics like Trump, likes like Trump, and (most importantly) can rile up the base like Trump - all while maintaining a superficial glaze of acceptability on CNN? They just have to do that once, and then in Trump’s words, you’ll never have to do an election again.