I only recently attempted soldering SMD for the first time. I got 1206 resistors figuring they'd be the easiest to solder, but they're too large from spanning between veroboard tracks. 0805's werent much harder to solder at least.
Wasnt as hard as I thought though. Sometimes a bit fiddly holding parts down steady but not too bad. Daves tip of 0.5mm solder and a chisel tip iron worked well
One tip though is if you can, particuarly on IC legs, try pressing the solder tip so it touches both the leg and the solder pad. Touching just on top of the leg and hoping it would "heat through" required longer iron times which prob heated the chip more (although for resistors, touching the top of the contact worked well. Dont forget the flux paste (I found a pen easy). Good luck!