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Pendragon.
The five comes in because there are four 3×3 blocks, one in each corner, which describe the top and bottom faces of the two cubes. The fifth is the middle slice, which is common to both cubes, as stated in paragraph 3 of the instructions.

My reading of the instructions suggests that, if you take the four 3x3 corners, you should be able to substitute the two middle row letters in each for other letters to give eight new definitions of the eight unentered synonyms. Clearly not!

Thanks, Pangakupu.

KGB did a 2D puzzle in puzzle, and Pangakupu has now done a 3D one. Bravo!

I have the eight vertical cube entries for submission.

For one of the across clues, I have not correctly identified the extra word, though I have its cube entry... Well, that does not affect the submission. Will look at it some more.

Good that this puzzle does not have a GK layer, and is entirely within cryptic crossword realm.

Thanks again, jono, for the .pdf

Done. The clues were relatively accessible and the preamble made sense on the fifth or sixth reading 😆

The tricky part for me was the endgame where I had evidently picked the wrong 3-letter synonym in a few places - there are instances where there are multiple options to choose from, and in the absence of wordplay I needed to work out the relative positioning of other words to make it work.

Overall I found that hugely enjoyable, so an early thanks to Pangakupu if he happens to lurk round here.

pendragon

You are right about finding 16 words in the grid.

I laid them out as two pairs, one below the other, NW/SE and NE/SW.

Then, drew imaginary lines connecting their corners - and saw that one of the answers fit each of them.

You have to do it only once, as the 'sandwich' letters are the same for the other set. You will see the other four entries right away.

As of 9:35 pm London time, the puzzle has not appeared in Gdn site.

A solver who has completed the puzzle points out that the deadline is Dec 3.

So, what's the hurry. :-)

The Grauniad Gremlins at work again.
I thought this was a terrific puzzle. How compilers come up with such inventive structures again and again has me in awe.

ilippu@37

The fact that it has yet to appear on the Guardian website coupled with the bizarre 3rd Dec entry deadline, makes me wonder if this is even the June puzzle.

Hi Mattrom,

No access to the print version and, as expected, no reply to my email.

It’s clear from Pangakupu’s post on his own website that he expected the puzzle to be published on June 1st.