The Austen was a generally effective design, the MkII was redesigned to use a cast body but it was never as popular as the Owen gun-2 main problems were that the mag was a copy of the Sten (and thus of the original MP38/40 design) with the same feed problems if the lips were deformed-the second was that the folding stock was uncomfortably long for most soldiers to use. As was common with Australian made SMGs, they were usually painted in jungle camo colours.