Anyone have any ideas?

thanks!

This was an intriguing problem and I really didn't know how to solve it
at first.  I knew there had to be a simple way and there is.  It's a
good thing that I didn't have a lot of work to do the last couple of
days or I'd be in trouble :-).

I think this addresses all of your issues and demonstrates how it works too.

Regarding disposing of the Graphics reference, it isn't necessary in the
paintComponent() method.  It is if you create a Graphics from an Image
that you are going to use for active rendering or for some other
purpose.  What you need to be careful of though is changing the Graphics
transform and not resetting that when you leave the paintComponent().  I
avoid that by not setting the transform on the Graphics but using the
AffineTransform to modify the Shape.  The Graphics.translate() would be
a problem if we weren't resetting it every time that we draw the Shape.

import java.awt.*;
import java.awt.event.*;
import java.awt.geom.*;
import javax.swing.*;

public class PaintTest2 extends JPanel implements Runnable {
    int x,y;
    double scale;
    Polygon poly = new Polygon(new int[] {0,10,45,60,56,60},
     new int[] {0,30,42,27,12,0},6);
    static boolean flip;

    public PaintTest2() {
        setPreferredSize(new Dimension(400,300));
        addMouseListener(new MouseAdapter() {
            public void mousePressed(MouseEvent me) {
                x = me.getX();
                y = me.getY();
                scale = 0.0;
                new Thread(PaintTest2.this).start();
            }
        });
    }

    public void run() {
        while (scale < 1.0) {
            scale += 0.1;
            repaint();
            try { Thread.sleep(40); }
            catch (InterruptedException ie) { }
        }
    }

    public void paintComponent(Graphics g2D) {
        Graphics2D g = (Graphics2D)g2D;
        g.setColor(getBackground());
        g.fillRect(0,0,getWidth(),getHeight());
        g.setColor(getForeground());

        g.translate(x,y);  // follow the mouse

        AffineTransform at = new AffineTransform();
        at.scale(1.0,scale);  // scale it
        if (flip)
            at.scale(1.0,-1.0);  // flip it
        Shape s = at.createTransformedShape(poly);
        g.fill(s);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Runnable r = new Runnable() {
            public void run() {
                JFrame f = new JFrame();
                f.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.EXIT_ON_CLOSE);

                JMenuBar mb = new JMenuBar();
                f.setJMenuBar(mb);

                final JCheckBoxMenuItem cbmi =
                 new JCheckBoxMenuItem("Flip It!",flip);
                cbmi.addActionListener(new ActionListener() {
                    public void actionPerformed(ActionEvent ae) {
                        flip = cbmi.getState();
                    }
                });
                mb.add(cbmi);

                PaintTest2 pt2 = new PaintTest2();
                f.add(pt2);

                f.pack();
                f.setVisible(true);
            }
        };
        EventQueue.invokeLater(r);
    }
}