I own a hot air rework but I see it as a tool to take multi-legged parts off a PCB, not put them on. I use a T12 K tip to solder pins individually under a microscope and then solder wick to remove excess solder.
To put down my parts, I no-clean flux the pads and then use thin solder to put solder onto 1 pad, choose one that is connected to a track not one that is unconnected, and avoid a ground pin as you'll need more heat/time. Then I carefully position the IC with tweezers under the microscope - the plan view should be correct, the IC will be sitting high with the pin resting on the soldered pad - and heat that one pre-soldered pad until the IC drops down to sit flush with the PCB - use the lightest touch possible with the tweezers, forcing the IC around will risk pulling the pad off the PCB. Once I'm happy with the IC position, I go in and solder one pad on the opposite side; again make sure the IC is aligned. Now, go back and solder the remaining pads. If there are bridged pins or too much solder, I take a piece of thin solder wick which I pre-wet with no-clean flux to creep up un 3 or 4 pads at once, what happens is that the wick gets a load of solder in it and it then acts as a reservoir to add/subtract solder from multiple pins at once.
This approach has been very successful for ICs with pitches down to 0.5 mm and 0603 size discretes. My design deliberately does not go lower than these sizes to make it hand-buildable.