u/AcanthisittaAnnual27

I'm thinking of moving up to BGA packages after using surface-mount packages with visible pins for quite some time. I'm a hobbyist with a limited budget so I only have hot a hot air gun, flux, solder paste etc. Nothing expensive like a reflow oven. I can only afford a limited number of prototypes as well.

I'm looking at a ball pitch of 0.5mm with a CB132 package. Is that feasible for me to do reliably with only a hot air gun and some flux? Do I need a hotplate? Reflow Oven? What about finer-pitch packages?

Many thanks!