The first couple of times I recapped something, I used radial caps to replace SMD. It works, more or less, but tends to be ugly. In one case, I simply couldn't
find compatible SMD caps, so had to use radials, and then had trouble getting the case closed. I very quickly got tired of buying "capacitor kits" for specific hardware, especially since sometimes they aren't quite right, and moved up to simply stocking a goodly range of capacitor values in common packages. With a little bit of practice, SMD, at least of this vintage, tends to be fairly easy to work with, as long as I can get my iron to the terminals (not always guaranteed with the way some boards are laid out).
Solder paste makes these jobs much easier.
I've never actually tried solder paste. I know that it supposedly works well with hot air, but does it also work well with an iron? If so, I can absolutely see that simplifying things, simply because you have fewer things to either keep steady or move carefully at the same time.