I was wondering if it was possible to render to a swing component like a canvas or something of that sort.
LWJGL 3 has bindings to JAWT, which lets you do this (https://github.com/LWJGL/lwjgl3/blob/master/modules/core/src/test/java/org/lwjgl/demo/system/jawt/LWJGLCanvas.java). It's not a complete solution but can get you started.