diff --git a/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/models.py b/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/models.py
index afc376c931..7d7b96380c 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/models.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/models.py
@@ -3,9 +3,9 @@ from django.db import models
 # Since the test database doesn't have tablespaces, it's impossible for Django
 # to create the tables for models where db_tablespace is set. To avoid this
 # problem, we mark the models as unmanaged, and temporarily revert them to
-# managed during each tes. See setUp and tearDown -- it isn't possible to use
-# setUpClass and tearDownClass because they're called before Django flushes the
-# tables, so Django attempts to flush a non-existing table.
+# managed during each test. We also set them to use the same tables as the
+# "reference" models to avoid errors when other tests run 'syncdb'
+# (proxy_models_inheritance does).
 
 class ScientistRef(models.Model):
     name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
@@ -19,6 +19,7 @@ class ArticleRef(models.Model):
 class Scientist(models.Model):
     name = models.CharField(max_length=50)
     class Meta:
+        db_table = 'tablespaces_scientistref'
         db_tablespace = 'tbl_tbsp'
         managed = False
 
@@ -28,5 +29,14 @@ class Article(models.Model):
     authors = models.ManyToManyField(Scientist, related_name='articles_written_set')
     reviewers = models.ManyToManyField(Scientist, related_name='articles_reviewed_set', db_tablespace='idx_tbsp')
     class Meta:
+        db_table = 'tablespaces_articleref'
         db_tablespace = 'tbl_tbsp'
         managed = False
+
+# Also set the tables for automatically created models
+
+Authors = Article._meta.get_field('authors').rel.through
+Authors._meta.db_table = 'tablespaces_articleref_authors'
+
+Reviewers = Article._meta.get_field('reviewers').rel.through
+Reviewers._meta.db_table = 'tablespaces_articleref_reviewers'
diff --git a/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/tests.py b/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/tests.py
index 763c8a7fdb..e8c1671717 100644
--- a/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/tests.py
+++ b/tests/modeltests/tablespaces/tests.py
@@ -6,11 +6,7 @@ from django.db.models.loading import cache
 from django.core.management.color import no_style 
 from django.test import TestCase, skipIfDBFeature, skipUnlessDBFeature
 
-from models import Article, ArticleRef, Scientist, ScientistRef
-
-# Automatically created models
-Authors = Article._meta.get_field('authors').rel.through
-Reviewers = Article._meta.get_field('reviewers').rel.through
+from models import Article, ArticleRef, Authors, Reviewers, Scientist, ScientistRef
 
 # We can't test the DEFAULT_TABLESPACE and DEFAULT_INDEX_TABLESPACE settings
 # because they're evaluated when the model class is defined. As a consequence,
@@ -27,7 +23,7 @@ class TablespacesTests(TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):
         # The unmanaged models need to be removed after the test in order to
-        # prevent bad interactions with other tests (proxy_models_inheritance).
+        # prevent bad interactions with the flush operation in other tests.
         self.old_app_models = copy.deepcopy(cache.app_models)
         self.old_app_store = copy.deepcopy(cache.app_store)
 
@@ -56,7 +52,7 @@ class TablespacesTests(TestCase):
     def test_tablespace_ignored_for_model(self):
         # No tablespace-related SQL
         self.assertEqual(sql_for_table(Scientist),
-                         sql_for_table(ScientistRef).replace('ref', ''))
+                         sql_for_table(ScientistRef))
 
     @skipUnlessDBFeature('supports_tablespaces')
     def test_tablespace_for_indexed_field(self):
@@ -69,7 +65,7 @@ class TablespacesTests(TestCase):
     def test_tablespace_ignored_for_indexed_field(self):
         # No tablespace-related SQL
         self.assertEqual(sql_for_table(Article),
-                         sql_for_table(ArticleRef).replace('ref', ''))
+                         sql_for_table(ArticleRef))
 
     @skipUnlessDBFeature('supports_tablespaces')
     def test_tablespace_for_many_to_many_field(self):