Here's my technique for easy hand soldering of SO16 chips etc.
I use a fine tipped temp controlled soldering iron, just a standard one, I run about 325'C.
1. Drop chip on dry pcb.
2. Push chip in place using fingers,
3. Hold chip down (in place) with fingertip/fingernail of left hand
4. soldering iron dab some fresh solder on the tip
5. touch iron tip right across 3 pins of the SOIC
6. check chip is placed right
7. (repeat); dab solder on tip, dab tip on 3 pins.
3 pins at a time is about right to soak the excess solder from the tip of the iron onto the pins, and not bridge out too often. I get bridges about 1/3 of the time, and dont use wick I just wipe the excess solder off the iron tip, then touch it back on the bridge, it sucks the excess from the pins and removes the bridge.
It's very quick, it probably takes as long to push the chip in position and check it's lined up as it does to actually solder it.
The trick is to "dab" the correct amount of solder onto the iron tip each time, but this gets easy with some practice. I just use 1mm rosin cored solder in a dispenser that holds the solder end upwards so I can "dab" the tip down onto the solder end.
Bright lighting and even a magnifier are essential.
3V0, you can rejuvenate old solder paste just by heating to 60'C for a few hours. Leaving on hot concrete in the sun works, I actually use an incubator but it definitely works. The solder returns to solution within the flux paste, which itself is inert. I used the same solder paste syringe for years.