You apply the flux liberally and drag a clean solder iron tip along the pads.
So it's solder paste?
When soldering SOIC, SSOP, QFP packages, align the chip then tack two opposite corners with solder. Make sure the pins are all aligned.
I was struggling with tweezers and an exacto knife to keep the damn thing in place. Then I found that simply putting your thick finger partly on the board and partly on the chip will fix its position just fine for you to make the tags.
Flux up 10 or so pins, then quick wave actions (Drag OUT from the leads, not across the pins) over these pins with a 1mm chisel tip.
I have tried dragging across the pins and that works fine - just don't put any pressure on your tip. Oh and ya, my tip is a bit big 2.2mm but it works - would probably work better with smaller tips (wasn't able to find a smaller chisel tip for my solder station)...
I like to use T5 solder paste, hot air pencil and a microscope when doing .5mm pins.
Yes, I have seen YouTube videos that demonstrate that - looked real easy. I went with the conventional solder (I use 0.5mm 5 core 60/40) and flux because I don't do this every day and as I understood, solder paste has a shelf life...
I decided to desolder the chip and fix the bent pin. Unfortunately that did not go very smoothly. I had some more bent pins and a (one) pad that came lose from the PCB. I have managed to straighten everything out using my new USB Microscope - good practice there too - but it kept me busy the rest of the day... Ah well.
Thanx, for all the suggestions. Appreciate that.