




Inferno
It is not quite done yet. However they are supposed to finish it in October, that is the expectation and from what I'm gatherhing it's probably an internal deadline. It was confirmed again that printing takes 12 weeks, as with the previous FW HH books.
So this means a 2016 release is out of the question and that was confirmed to me. If they finish in October as is the plan, the book should be out early February, which as I'm sure you are already collectively murmuring, would be just in time for the Horus Heresy Weekender.
A sad malo loših vijesti
I spoke to the painter of this model about it, and he told me about the process of painting Primarch and other Character miniatures. There's a one day briefing session, where all the writers who have written about the character come together, and they tell the painter all about the canonical -and future- details. Hence, Russ's blonde hair etc. When asked whether or not Russ's sword is the same as Abaddon's, he said that the writers told him that his sword is, and I quote, "imbued with a daemon, and it will play an important role in the future 40K universe", while smiling somewhat mysteriously.
Jel ovo bilo stvarno potrebno? Međutim...
The painter had meetings with a FW historian (the modeller, too, before he made the prototypes) before painting him, instructing him about the FULL story of Leman Russ and any defining things important for painting (hair and skin color, armour, details, etc.).
Among all that info he was instructed that THIS sword (no mention of this being Mjalnar or another name for it being dropped) would be important later in Warhammer's history and contains a daemon - which is why he made the blades base colour a VERY very dark red, to give it that red hue.
...and the painter, as a fan, not unlike ourselves, made the conclusion or believed that this was a hint for it being the bladethat MIGHT later on become Drach'nyen.
It is NOT canon. It's his head-canon. (Atleast until we get black-on-white printed info to support this)