Laravel 4: Model Class not found - php

Question

I am getting a Class 'App\Models\User' not found error when I try too use the User class inside a controller class method. I have looked everywhere and tried everything with no luck! Here's what I've tried:
Check that class exists and is in the right path (it works everywhere else)
Add use App\Models\User; to the top of the controller file and just use User
Tried: new \App\Models\User
Run: composer dump-autoload
Run: php artisan dump-autoload
Run: php artisan clear-compiled
When I do dd(class_exists('App\Models\User')), I get \vendor\laravel\framework\src\Illuminate\Support\helpers.php:513:boolean false which confirms that the class really isn't accessible for some reason.
Any ideas?
EDIT
You will find questions similar to this but not the same. Please read question carefully. I didn't say the controller class was missing. I said a model class (User) was not accessible from inside a particular controller class. And that the model class works everywhere else.
EDIT: Code Excerpt
<?php
use App\Models\User;
use App\Models\Role;
use App\Models\Advert;
use App\Models\AdvertPhoto;
use App\Models\AdvertMetum;
use App\Models\AdvertMetaDatum;
use App\Models\AdvertMetaCategory;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\View;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Input;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Hash;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Config;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Auth;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Mail;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Response;
use Illuminate\Support\Facades\Request;
class AdvertsController extends BaseController {
/**
* Show the form for creating a new resource.
* GET /adverts/create
*
*/
public function create()
{
// New user instance
// dd(class_exists('\App\Models\User')); // Outputs FALSE
$userx = new User; // Throws an Exception
return View::make('adverts.create');
}
}

Answer 1

I have managed to resolve this on my own. It turns out you have to tell Laravel what class and table will be used for authentication (a.k.a your 'User' class). I didn't know this (plus this is an inherited project). Apparently the User class was defined in the root namespace (i.e. \User) and Laravel was configured to look for \User. But sometimes I see \App\Models\User in the code and it gave me the impression that User was under the same namespace as the other models since they were ALL in the app/models/ folder. I have corrected this problem in config/auth.php by changing:
'model' => 'User'
to:
'model' => App\Models\User::class
And adding namespace at the top of app/models/user.php:
namespace App\Models;
Finally I set an alias in config/app.php like this:
'User' => 'App\Models\User'
So that where ever I've been using User::blah will not break (forcing me to add use App\Models\User; everywhere!)