I would just create a dummy line and use notitlefor real strings. Sort of
set yrange[0:1]
plot "realdata1.data" u 1:2 w linespoints lt 1 notitle , \
"realdata2.data" u 1:2 w linespoints lt 2 notitle , \
1/0 w linespoints lt 1 lc rgb 'black' title 'Model1', \
1/0 w linespoints lt 1 lc rgb 'black' title 'Model2'
lt 1 , . , set yrange gnuplot