Jim,
When you come back to the build, try to get hold of a pair of flat eyebrow tweezers (raid the wifes makeup bag), they are for one hand, and for the other a pointed pair. I use those that do not have the teeth on them. In conjuction with those you can bend small pieces by pressing the part against your thumbnail and using that as your 'anvil'. using this method keeps fingers out of the way plus you can see what you are doing. Hope this helps, and hope the cold has retired. I know how you feel, I have had sneezing and running nose for months - I think we have found the cause - the perfume in the kitchen waste bag, get up in the morning - fine - one whiff of the bag and I could easily go through a roll of kitchen towling.
Take care, Mike.