I do this stuff for a living - Ugly is trying to solder multiple consecutive jumper wires on a .5mm pitch part. 50mil is easy after that. After the first few times, you *will* double check everything before sending out a board.
If you do try to solder the stuff, I'd recommend that you
1) get some ~AWG30 kynar wire - it's like wirewrap stuff, and the insulation holds up a bit better under the heat.
2) solder all the wires on the header side first, then start poking the wires onto the chip itself
3) hot iron, lots of flux, very little solder and you should be done pretty quickly.