[LM358]

I disagree. Most SMD components are perfectly fine to solder by hand. Using a good soldering station with a knife cartridge makes the job much easier. Same with a microscope, but I home I use a headband with magnifying glasses. It does of course take some more practice than through hole components and in many cases it's easier to solder them in an oven, but then you need solder paste and preferably a stencil.

The only types where I'd reach for a heat gun are packages like TO-252 and TO-263 where the backside is soldered directly to a pad on the PCB, but for hobbyist purposes I think even that could be doable with a powerful iron and a large tip.

[tecleandor]

Yep, I discovered late than SMD parts were way easier to solder than I expected. Sometimes even easier and faster than thru-hole components if they aren't too small, as you don't have to be flipping the board back and forth all the time.

I just bought a couple of super cheap SMD soldering learning kits from AliExpress and spent an afternoon or two practicing. They are just 1 or 2 dollars each.

Those kits are just a small PCB with a bunch of SMD resistors and stuff you can solder. When you finish you can measure the resistance of the whole circuit to check if you've soldered them all properly or you've shorted or killed any of the components. Some of them have also a couple SOP and QFP footprint chips or even some LEDs on a functioning circuit, so you can power it later and see if it works.

Edit: Corrected QFN for QFP