See discussion here:
https://code.djangoproject.com/ticket/21794
To summarise, when an abstract model class has no app_label, Django currently says:
RemovedInDjango19Warning: Model class [model] doesn't declare an explicit app_label and either isn't in an application in INSTALLED_APPS or else was imported before its application was loaded. This will no longer be supported in Django 1.9.
However, if I add app_label = None to the abstract model, Django thinks all inheriting models are in an app labelled None. I think the solution is simply to silence the warning. I'm happy to submit a pull request if the core devs agree.
Cheers,
Greg