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Anybody else find this very hard work? I threw in the towel about half way through.

Preamble unfair, in my view, in that it didn't mention the fact that some entries had to be truncated, or am I just being curmudgeonly?

I think having words occupying single cells is ok, which is roughly what we have here, and I've seen the device quite often (Schadenfreude liked to do it, usually with clashing entries). So I think it's ok, even though it's not flagged as such in the preamble, and uses a 'disappearing' act instead (which might be a little unfair, I suppose).
I found the clues difficult but got lucky with 15ac+17d very early on, so got off to a good start.
I'm a bit biased, though (I've enjoyed nearly all of Vismut's puzzles so far).

I have 4 of the thematic answers.

If I can get hints on 14a, 21d, 25d which seem to be thematic that would help.

I can give the clues but I am asking for help from folks who have already solved it.

Thanks.

Yes, they're all thematic.

24 symbol for 'tin' + anag ZERO STEE[L] + W(eak) [the[L] is extra]
21 def 'diggers'/'snoopers' ARK(ansas) inside REP[S]+YES (reversed) [all inside 'negatives'] [S] is extra
25 5 letter slang word for 'Loo paper' + 6 letter word for 'fires'/'gets going' with last letter extra - the 'bangers' in the def are cars/old heaps.

...sorry - 14 not 24, of course.

...for 25, the extra letter is the last letter of the first synonym ('Loo...').

Thank you drxx.

Yes, I certainly found this was one of the more challenging puzzles. I eventually realised that there had to be missing words in cells, not just individual letters, from the rather lengthy clues which have obvious anagram indicators but with short solutions. All made more difficult of course by having an extra letter buried in the words to be 'anaground'! Nonetheless, really enjoyed the solve, with a genuine PDM once I'd got 3 of the missing words.

Morning all

I enjoyed this puzzle a lot.

I wonder what people did for the central cell and the cell numbered 25?

Did you try to represent the 'characters' or just use the colour and block the cell out?

I took the easy route and blocked-in the squares with the dominant colour, minus any distinguishing features/trappings (I think this gives a set of 8 distinct colours).