Ev 1526

[RickGDG]

I wonder if anyone could give me a nudge on the endgame here. I have all the answers with the exception of 17d and I believe I have the first word of the theme via the missing letters (12 letters). But as for the remaining 15 missing letters, they do not seem to make much sense, and a handful of the clues I have not been able to parse. Any help greatly appreciated.

[ProfessorMaisie]

The next two words from the extra letters are 7 and 8 letter words (although the 8 letter is an odd word that looks unfinished). Do a search for the 3 words + 'machines'.
17d take 'n' from DI(n)ES after after a 2 letter 'smell'.

[RickGDG]

Hmm think it's coming together now. Many thanks.

[ProfessorMaisie]

I think the 12 letter one alone could lead to the wrong kind of technology altogether, RickGDG (but two out of the three should be enough).

[RickGDG]

All done now, many thanks, although I'm not sure my draughtsmanship is up to muster for the endgame. I'd blundered with a few of the missing letters. Penny drop was realising the final word started with a 'c', whereupon Wikipedia came to the rescue.

[sawyerhja]

Is there a special technique in solving this EV? Whilst I can do the DT backpage crossword every day -without hints, this has me totally foxed. What am I missing?

[RickGDG]

sawyerhja - the instructions in the preamble take a bit of getting used to. Best just to dive in and solve as much of it as possible in the normal fashion and worry about the endgame later - so for example with this EV, fully 18 clues are 'normal' and require no manipulation (alhtough you won't know which ones they are until you've done them).
An example of one of the clues that does require manipulation is 23d: 'Fourth of Patsy Cline's tunes'. Definition is 'tunes'. Take the fourth letter from Patsy. Then think of a synonym for 'tunes' beginning with that letter. That should suggest which letter you must remove from 'Cline's' for the clue to make sense. Hope that helps. I'm a recent convert to the EVs and they are very rewarding once you get used to them.