OP I'm doing the same as you, maybe a bit farther along. What helped me get better with the iron (a lot better) is salvaging or swapping out parts. Getting a sense of timing and pressure with the iron took me a while, as well as learning about the impact of heat settings.
It's nice when you can happily destroy a part while working on it to learn "oh shit, I shouldn't do that" without feeling like an important piece or project is in jeopardy when you inevitably (if like me...) fuck something up.
