When I was a kid and into war-gaming I use to paint small lead figures, usually I did the final details with a single strand of hair. Now my arms aren't long enough nor do they make a set of cheaters strong enough to even come close to what I could do then...
Yeah, like you, my close-in vision would be perfect if my arms were about a foot longer. In the 1970s the lead miniatures were the rage with the D&D crowd (this was in college), but not everyone had the money, so a few were buying them and painting them, and one guy I knew took a larger scale (from a different manufacturer) and painstakingly whittled it down into some WWII era tank that no one made in miniature at the time, just to one-up the other major miniature collector in the dorm. It was hilarious. I have no idea how they found the time to go to school.
A cheap binocular microscope will allow you to do amazing stuff, and you’d be amazed how steady your hands can be when everything is magnified.